Category Archives: Spyder

Our Transportation Evolution

When I closed my last post on Thursday, I mentioned our plan to go to the Power Food Park and meet up with friends. That’s what we did. We arrived around 5:30pm to find a much smaller crowd and fewer food trucks than were present on the Saturday before. Donna had reserved a fire pit and s’mores packets from 6pm to 8pm. We found Mike and Jodi Hall right away and staked out a picnic table.

We decided to go ahead and order food and eat at the picnic table before going to our reserved fire pit (number 6) where we had six Adirondack chairs around the fire pit. Frank and Kelly Burk joined us. We had a lot of laughs around the fire – the temperature drops fairly quickly after sundown and the fire pit made it very comfortable. Here are a couple of underexposed photos.

Kelly, Frank and Jodie at the fire pit
Mike Hall and Donna

It was a fun time and two hours was about right for yukking it up around the fire.

Friday morning I started the Traeger around 8am and put on a pork shoulder (Boston Butt). I didn’t play pickleball Friday, I was saving my legs for the Valentine’s Day tournament on Saturday. The plan was to make pulled pork and take it across the street to Chuck and Sue Lines’ place at 5pm. Roxy and Dick Zarowny would join us there. Sue made potato salad and Roxie made cole slaw and a cucumber salad and lime pie. I brought nearly five pounds of pulled pork and it made a great dinner. Again we had a great time talking into the night and Chuck had a propane fired fire pit!

Donna and I played in the Valentine’s tournament Saturday morning. It wasn’t really a tournament – it was a round-robin type scheduled play with players teamed up with their sweetheart and rotating play against other teams. We won 50% of our matches, but I don’t think we were playing at our best. It was fun nonetheless.

We drove to Frank and Kelly’s place in the afternoon – it’s only a couple of miles from where we used to live in east Mesa, about five miles from Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. It was breezy out and felt chilly although the thermometer registered 69 degrees. We enjoyed cocktails and laughs, then Frank got serious on the grill. He had some super thick USDA Prime New York steaks and grilled them to perfection. Donna brought spinach and bacon stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer – they were delicious. Kelly made roasted asparagus and yellow squash and potato kisses for sides. It was a great meal and laughs continued at the dinner table.

We drove our new-to-us Nissan truck to the Burk’s place and I was glad we did. It started raining when we left around 9pm. I don’t like to drive the MG Midget at night, especially when it’s raining. It was no bother in the Nissan Frontier though.

Our modes of transportation have evolved over the years we’ve spent on the road. When we first left our sticks-and-bricks home for the full-time RV lifestyle, I thought having a scooter to get around would be sufficient. I figured we just needed something to go to the store occasionally and if we really needed a car we could rent one from time to time. We learned to pack away a surprising amount of groceries on our Kymco Downtown 300i scooter. It’s pictured on the header of the blog page.

It had limitations though. It was capable of carrying us on the freeway, but whipping along at 70mph with cars all around us wasn’t exactly comfortable. Also, with its small wheels, it wasn’t the best on dirt or gravel surfaces which we often found in and around RV parks.

After a couple of years, we traded it in for a Can-Am Spyder three-wheeled motorcycle. This was much more versatile, but again it wasn’t the most comfortable vehicle for longer trips and extended freeway driving. We tried to avoid rainy weather or didn’t drive much at night.

The MG Midget was the next step in the evolution of transportation for us. Midget-San with its Nissan A15 engine and five-speed transmission made freeway travel easy, but you have to be on your toes as the sports car is very low and small. Like riding a motorcycle, you always have the assume the other drivers don’t see you. For Donna, all of these choices compromised her hair style. She either had helmet head or wind blown hair from driving top-down in Midget-San.

Now we can take the Frontier without any of our previous limitations. Midget -San will be relegated to local jaunts when we feel like it. The Frontier will be more of a daily driver.

We took a drive on Sunday morning. I felt like getting out and Donna wanted to see how the Salt River and Saguaro Lake looked for kayaking. The Frontier will be great for transporting the Sea Eagle kayak to almost any drop-off point. We loaded the Sea Eagle in the Midget many times, but we tried to stay off of dirt roads or difficult launch areas.

To get to Saguaro Lake from east Mesa is an easy drive. We took Ellsworth Road over Usery Pass to Bush Highway. It’s only a few miles, but it’s night and day compared to town. Crossing Usery Pass dropped us into the Tonto National Forest – a forest of desert scrub and cactus. Saguaro Lake is a popular boating, kayaking and fishing spot. It has a marina with a restaurant and also the Desert Belle tour boat.

Saguaro Lake marina
View of the lake toward Butcher Jones Recreation Area

The Desert Belle cruise is a narrated tour of the lake and various sites and recreation areas. It has food and drink onboard, but currently only upper deck outdoor seating is open.

Desert Belle cruise boats

We back-tracked on Bush Highway and took a look at the Goldfield Salt River access point, but it didn’t look too good to get a kayak down to the river there. Next, we stopped at Phon D Sutton which has access and the water level is just enough to put a kayak in there. We stayed at Phon D Sutton several years ago when dry camping was allowed there – it’s the header photo – but you can’t stay overnight anymore.

Our last stop was at the Granite Reef Recreation Center. It was busy and we saw several kayakers there. With the low water levels, it seems like the stretch of water between Phon D Sutton and Granite Reef is the place to go.

It was a fun-filled weekend with good food, good friends and lots of laughs. We don’t have any real plans for the week ahead. The weather forecast calls for cooler weather with daily highs in the mid 60s until next weekend when it will warm up again.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Size Matters

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

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

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

It’s a quiet gateway

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

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

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

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

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

Tiffin Phaeton and long trailer

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

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

Double tow set up

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

Laying down gravel for more sites

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

Room for expansion with utilities in place

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

Horse and mule deer

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

Tiny home

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

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

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

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Wheelin’ and Dealin’

We made a lot of progress this week and have to start thinking about our next move. I mentioned in my last post that a thief stole the MG emblem off Midget-San. Luckily, they didn’t cause any damage, but it bothers me that the person had to know how the emblem was attached to steal it. They obviously opened the trunk lid and pulled the speed nuts off the mounting posts. If they had just yanked the emblem off, the speed nuts would have fallen into the trunk, but there weren’t any speed nuts to be found.

I ordered a replacement emblem from Northwest Import Parts in Portland, Oregon. They were great to deal with. I received an e-mail confirmation right away and they had shipped it via USPS Priority mail on Monday. I received the part along with speed nuts on Wednesday. Speed nuts are just clips that have angled tabs. The clips are pressed by hand over the mounting posts and the angled tabs grip the plastic posts and prevent the nuts from falling off.

Underside of MG emblem with three plastic mounting posts
Speed nuts
Holes in the rear deck lid where emblem mounts
New emblem in place

I put a thin bead of room temperature vulcanizing (RTV) silicone at the base of the mounting posts on the emblem. This serves two purposes – it seals the holes in the deck lid to prevent any water from entering and it also acts as an adhesive, thus making it tougher for someone to walk away with the emblem again.

Lifestyles Recreational Products in Mount Vernon finally got the ECM and installed it on the Spyder Thursday. They told me their mechanic thought it still ran a little rough. I didn’t understand how this could be, it was running perfectly fine until the ECM failed. So on Friday morning, I went up to their shop and road tested the Spyder. It ran perfectly fine, smooth, good acceleration and no fault codes. I settled the bill and promptly sold the Spyder.

Donna mentioned that this marks the first time in 13 years that she doesn’t have a motorcycle to ride. I thought about it and realized I had one or more motorcycles for the last 20 years and had motorcycles off and on for nearly 50 years. Maybe another will come along in the future, but for now we’ve transitioned to four wheels and Midget-San.

On Friday afternoon, we went to Arlington Velo Sport to pick up Donna’s new bicycle. They received the bike Friday and prepped it and installed the rear rack and special pedals. Donna ordered pedals that are dual-purpose – on one side they clip to SPD-type shoe cleats while the opposite side is a flat pedal for “normal” shoes. The rear rack holds a bag specifically made for it. It clips into place with a quick release mount. The side pouches hold fold-out nylon bags that become extra storage saddle bags. Donna loves the idea of riding her bike to the grocery store and not having to ride home with a full back pack.

Donna’s new Trek Dual Sport 2

The bike is nicely equipped – it has front suspension, disc brakes, three front chain rings and an eight-speed rear cluster. Trek describes it as a City/Trekker bike. It’s versatile and should serve Donna well, whether she’s riding on pavement or dirt bike trails.

Donna bought a bottle of amber ale for me, brewed by Ten Pin Brewing in Moses Lake, Washington. This was a far cry from the lousy ale I had at Ale Spike on Camano Island. The Ten Pin was brewed to style with a smooth, balanced malt character subtly bittered with 35 IBUs. This one is a winner!

Ten Pin Angle amber ale

We’ve had great weather this week with lots of sun and temperatures reaching the low 80s. Last night, we had rain showers overnight and it’s overcast this morning, but the skies are supposed to clear again this afternoon. Donna’s heading out for her first ride on her new bike. She’s going to stop at the farmer’s market in Arlington and also make a stop at the grocery store.

We’ll be discussing travel plans and figuring out where to go from here. We signed up for an Alpine Coach Association Rally – the Eastern Sierras Rally. We were there in the spring, but weather chased us away and we didn’t get to see most of the sights we wanted to visit. The 13-day Alpine Coach Rally has a number of tours set up and we’ll be able to explore. We’ll be following a similar route that we took on our way up north, but we’ll be going in the opposite direction this time once we hit the Sierra Nevada mountains. The rally starts September 5th, so we’ll have a month to wander as we make our way to the starting point in Carson City, Nevada.

Vintage Trailers and Cars

We’re still here in Alana’s driveway in Arlington, Washington. There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel though – Lifestyles Recreational Products expects to have the parts to complete the repair of the Spyder this week. Then I have to sell it.

We’ve been thinking about ways to increase available space in the trailer. I’ll need room to load Midget-San in there with enough clear space to avoid any damage to the car. After bicycling on Thursday, Donna came up with an idea. We were storing four bicycles in the trailer – her road bike, her beater bike, my road bike and my mountain bike.

I haven’t ridden my Orbea road bike in over a year. Donna isn’t planning to do any more long distance events like RAGBRAI with her road bike. She thought she should get rid of her bikes and replace them with one hybrid road/trail bike. I could get rid of my Orbea since I haven’t been riding it. That would take two bicycles out of the trailer but we would still have bikes to ride.

On Friday, we rode our bikes – Donna on her Trek Madone road bike, me on my Orbea – to Arlington Velo Sport bike shop. We did a little horse trading and ended up leaving both bikes there on trade and placing an order for a Trek Dual Sport 2 hybrid bike for Donna. The bike should be here by the end of the week.

The rest of this post is picture heavy. The weather has improved since my last post. Friday we had a high of about 70 degrees and enjoyed the two-mile walk back to Alana’s place from the bike shop. Saturday was another clear, sunny day with a high in the upper 70s. Donna and I drove Midget-San to Stanwood for a vintage RV (trailer) show. They had over a dozen restored RVs from the ’50s and ’60s on display. Some of the old rigs were very small, but usable for weekend camping.

Small travel trailer from 1969
Cozy interior
Beautiful truck and trailer from the ’50s
You could find something like this in every suburban neighborhood in the ’60s
Custom Ford Victoria and pop-up trailer
1950s pop-up camp trailer
Spartan Aircraft Company Royal Spartanette

This 1951 Royal Spartanette was built by the Spartan Aircraft Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. These were very expensive travel trailers and were considered “The Cadillac of trailers.” The floor plan on this one was laid out in such a way that it seemed roomier than our coach with the slides out! I wonder what they used to tow this rig?

We had lunch at the Chinese restaurant behind the Spartanette trailer at the Phoenix Pavilion. The food was great. After lunch, we took a drive over the bridge to Camano Island. Donna found free public access to the water on the island. We drove to English Boom Preserve and parked there.

Midget-San at English Boom Preserve

The name comes from the 1920s-1930s when the English Lumber Company logged trees in the area and floated log booms into Skagit Bay here. We were there at low tide and the bay is basically a tidal flat here. This tidal flat is an important habitat for salmon. Smolts swim out of the rivers they were spawned in – mainly the Snohomish, Stillaguamish and Skagit Rivers – and the eel grass along this flat provides cover for them as they grow and enter the sea.

Tidal flat at English Boom – snow covered Mount Baker in the center background

We made a stop at Ale Spike Brewery on the island. Donna liked her porter but I wasn’t impressed with my choice there. I should have known better when the Firechicken Ale I chose was described as red ale – amber. Okay, which is it – a red ale or an amber? It didn’t taste like either one – it was bitter with a yeasty aftertaste. Although the bar maid said it was their most popular brew, I didn’t care for it at all.

Is it a red or an amber?

After we came home, I went out to the Burger King parking lot nearby. When I lived here in the early 2000s, I had a couple of old Corvettes in the garage. On Saturday evenings, the local hot rodders would gather in the Burger King lot to swap lies and admire each other’s cars. I hadn’t been there in over 15 years, but I wanted to see if they still came out. They did.

Custom old Ford cabover truck
…with a big Ford V8 mid-ship
A guy I knew named Jan Boyd once owned this car in Darrington – big supercharger
The rear license plate folds up to show off the chrome

The guys there told me there was a big car show the following day – Sunday – up in Bellingham. They said they expected around 400 cars there.

On Sunday morning, Alana’s boyfriend, Kevin, and his sons picked up Alana, Gabi and Gabi’s friend, Kennedy around 6:30am. They were off to the airport for a flight to Hawaii. They’re spending the week on the big island and are looking forward to time on the beach and the golf course.

I made the 50-mile drive up to Bellingham in Midget-San while Donna used Alana’s car to go play pickleball in Marysville. I’m still resting the groin pull – it’s been a bother for months now.

The car show in Bellingham was a fundraiser for veterans. I used to do car shows with my Corvettes – I had a 1965 big block roadster and a 1972 LT-1 T- top. I got tired of the car show scene after a few years though.

At the show in Bellingham, I found myself drawn more to the vintage and unusual cars instead of ogling all of the muscle cars – the Camaros, Corvettes and Mustangs.

Remember the mid-engined truck at Burger King? This is what it was originally like
Fully restored 1950s MGA – it even has the original tool kit and oilers
MGB with a supercharged 215ci aluminum block Buick V8

The 215 cubic inch Buick aluminum block V8 was developed by General Motors and brought to market in 1960. This engine was way ahead of its time. It was lightweight and durable and produced great power. But it didn’t catch on with the American consumer – bigger was always thought to be better. Eventually GM sold all of the tooling and rights to Rover in England and they used versions of this engine into the 1990s.

MGA with aluminum Buick V8 and trailer

I talked to the owner of the blue MGA. He had pictures of the car as he found it sitting in a pasture – rusty, missing a rear quarter panel, no hood or grill. He and his son restored it to this condition and he bought the trailer so he and his wife could drive the car from Washington to Reno, Nevada for a week at the Hot August Nights car show.

It turned out his son was the guy with the supercharged Buick V8 MGB in the previous picture. Talented car guy – he can handle all the mechanical aspects, design and fabricate, weld and paint.

Morris Minor from the 1930s

This Morris Minor was designed for the narrow roads of England. I think this coupe is smaller than Midget-San.

English Ford

This Ford built in England is much smaller than its American counterparts. Small ruled the road in England while bigger was better here.

There was a downside to the car show. While Midget-San was parked there, someone decided they needed the MG emblem on the rear deck lid and removed it from the car. I can hardly believe someone would steal the emblem from the car, but there it is. I ordered a replacement and should have it in a few days. Sheesh!

The week ahead calls for rain Tuesday night. Otherwise, we should be in for warm, sunny days with highs around 80 degrees. Donna’s new bike should arrive on Thursday.

Going Topless

As expected, rain moved in during the past week. Donna and I are taking advantage of our time here in Arlington, Washington by getting caught up on dental appointments. I had my cleaning and check-up on Thursday and now I have another appointment next Monday. Head and neck radiation well over a decade ago continues to take a toll on my teeth. The dentist tells me it’s to be expected and overall he thinks I’ve done a good job of caring for my teeth.

Periods of rain and thundershowers Tuesday evening through Friday had us lying low. I have a few projects to work on and managed to knock a couple of things off the list. On our coach, the dash heater had a leaking valve that showed up during the run from Oregon. I don’t know why the designers of a 40-foot motorhome install a heat exchanger in the front to provide hot air through the dash vents. The heat exchanger is sized for a car and would never provide adequate heat for the interior volume of our coach. It might put a little warm air over your fingers and toes, but if it’s that cold, something more is needed.

The heat is provided by pumping coolant from the engine – in the rear of the coach – all the way to the front cap area. The supply line goes through a valve that has four connections. One is the inlet for the coolant coming from the engine, another is a return line to direct coolant back to the engine without entering the heat exchanger when the valve is closed. The other two lines allow coolant to enter and exit the heat exchanger when the heater valve is open. This valve was leaking coolant.

Rather than track down a replacement valve, I just disconnected the lines and plugged them with barbed plastic 5/8″ plugs and one-inch hose clamps. We’ve never used the dash heat anyway.

Although it was a wet week, the daily high temperatures were comfortable as they reached about 70 degrees. The weekend forecast was significantly better with mostly sunny skies and highs in the mid-to-upper-70s.

My daughter, Alana, and her boyfriend, Kevin, planned a barbeque at Kevin’s place on Saturday. The event was a celebration of our granddaughter Lainey’s 20th birthday. The weather was fine as promised, so Donna and I drove Midget-San to Kevin’s house up highway 9 with the top down. It was our first topless foray in Midget-San.

Midget-San in Kevin’s driveway

Earlier in the week, on Tuesday before rain came later in the day, Donna and I drove Midget-San up to La Conner for lunch. On the way back, Donna got some familiarization time behind the wheel.

Kevin had ribs and chicken in his Traeger all afternoon and they were delicious. They also served mac and cheese and an excellent potato gratin. Alana made baked beans which simmered for more than 24 hours. After a great meal sitting in yard while the youngsters played badminton and volleyball, it was time for a birthday cake. Happy 20th Lainey!

Cake time
Gabi, Alana and Lainey

We’re in for another fine day today. The skies are clear and the forecast high is 78 degrees. Donna took Midget-San to Marysville to play pickleball. I’ve been resting a nagging groin pull and have stayed away from the courts for a while. I hope to get over it soon.

The Spyder is still in the shop in Mount Vernon. I hope to have some news on Tuesday, then I can move forward with selling it. Until that happens, our future plans are on hold.

Alternate Routes Through Portland and Seattle

We were up early on Friday morning and hit the road with what had to be our earliest departure ever. We were on the road by 7:30am. I’d snagged an appointment for a chassis alignment on the coach at Brazel’s RV Performance Center in Centralia, Washington. I thought I could make the drive in four and half hours, but you never know what you might encounter driving through Portland.

I decided to take the long way around on I-205 rather than going straight through downtown Portland in I-5. This turned out to be a good decision as we only had a couple of slow-downs and no drama. We made good time and I had enough time to spare for a lunch stop in Chehalis. I went to the Subway sandwich shop while Donna fixed a salad for herself. We arrived at Brazel’s at 12:30pm and dropped the trailer in a pull-through site in their RV customer lot. This lot has full hook-ups for about a dozen and a half rigs. They took the coach into the shop right at 1pm.

The alignment job was a comprehensive chassis alignment that began with weighing the four corner wheel weight of the coach. They adjusted the ride height, checked rear alignment and thrust – no issues there – and front wheel camber, caster and toe. The front toe needed to be reset. Meanwhile, Donna used their 5G wifi to get some work done in the customer lounge area. With the work completed, we rolled out of Centralia at 4:30pm.

We got lucky and kept the wheels turning through Olympia with only a couple of slow-downs. The traffic came to a standstill just past the Martin Way exit where we left I-5. Our destination was the Cabela’s store in Lacey. We pulled into their lot around 5:30pm and called it a day. We’ve stayed at this Cabela’s before. It’s a quiet, out-of-the-way stop and good for a one-night layover.

Parked for the night at the west end of the Lacey Cabela’s

I’d planned on using the Cabela’s dump station but found they had removed it! Where the old dump station was located, they had poured concrete over the dump station hook-up. I don’t know what prompted that.

Donna made a favorite for dinner – pork tenderloin medallions with a dijon sauce, sweet potato mash and steamed asparagus.

Pork tenderloin medallions

The sun doesn’t set until well after 9pm this far north at this time of year. Consequently, we stayed up later than usual watching TV. Saturday morning we didn’t get rolling again until 10am. Once again, I opted to go the long way around and took I-405 instead of following I-5 through Seattle. I’m not sure how much it helped – traffic was terrible through Tacoma before we even got to I-405. Then we had a number of slow-downs and and full stops along the way. Once we got through and rejoined I-5 in Lynnwood, the slow downs continued. I-5 through Everett is poorly designed with traffic joining the Interstate right where lane closures or exit only lanes appear. It didn’t matter that it was mid-day on a Saturday – traffic came to a halt several times.

We stopped at the Smokey Point rest area at mile post 207 and used the free dump station there. They have three lanes for RV dump stations and we didn’t have to wait. From there, we continued north to Mount Vernon where I dropped off the Spyder. The shop there had a backlog of work, so it may be two weeks before they get to work on the Spyder. It was our best option though.

Now we’re parked in my daughter, Alana’s, driveway in Arlington, Washington. Her driveway is long enough to back in our 65-foot length of coach and trailer and set up for a couple of weeks of mooch-docking. Getting the coach and trailer lined up on the narrow residential street is a bit of a chore, but we got it done. I had us leveled and connected to the 50-amp electrical service I installed here a couple of years ago when I found out I couldn’t get Dish satellite reception. I had to pull the jacks up and move forward about three feet before the satellite antenna could lock in the signal. It’s all good now, but next time I’ll try to remember to check the satellite before I set everything up.

Mooch-docking at Alana’s

The weather has been outstanding. Mostly sunny skies with the high temperature reaching the mid-70s over the weekend and should be the same today. But, this is western Washington in June. Rain is forecast to reach the area overnight and we’ll have rain over the next few days.

Today is Alana’s birthday. We’ll be going out to celebrate over dinner at The Bonefish Grill tonight. Happy birthday, Alana!

Everything’s Broken

My laptop has been giving me fits, so I haven’t posted for several days. I thought my hard drive was about to crash. The cursor would suddenly freeze and the laptop would become unresponsive for long periods of time. A couple of days ago, when it started working again after about 40 minutes of no response, I found Malwarebytes was running in the background. I ended the task once the laptop resumed working and the laptop seemed fine. Last night it happened again. This time I uninstalled Malewarebytes and the laptop has been fine. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

The weekend weather was nice in Sutherlin – temps climbed daily from 70 degrees on Friday to mid-70s on Saturday and Sunday, hitting the 80s on Monday. Saturday morning we disconnected the 50amp electric service, water and sewer and battened down the hatches for a short drive into town. Les Schwab called around 9:30am and said our tires had arrived.

We pulled behind the shop and were directed to an outdoor covered work station. I checked the codes on the new tires to confirm the production dates – they were all 1419. As I wrote in my last post, tires have Department of Transportation (DOT) codes on the sidewall. The codes are alpha-numeric. The letters indicate the factory that produced the tire and the numbers are the calendar week and year of production, so 1419 means these tires were made the 14th calendar week of 2019.

DOT code on the new tires

Having fresh tires on an RV is an important consideration. Tires begin aging soon after they’re made – especially if they’re exposed to sunlight. Our old tires had lots of tread left – the tread depth was 13/32″ deep. Tires aren’t considered worn out until the tread depth is 3/32″. But, our tires had aged out. I found weather checking on the sidewall of two of our tires.

Weather checking

The checking was wasn’t deep and we would most likely be okay for a while longer. But I don’t like pushing such an important safety issue as tires. A blowout on a motorhome can be a catastrophic event.

The guys at Les Schwab did a fantastic job and had all six tires replaced in about an hour and a half. I had Equal Flexx brand balancing beads put in all six wheels. New shoes and a smooth ride!

With the Spyder down, we had nowhere to go and not much to do all weekend. Donna took the time to make a few dishes of “comfort food” so we would have some leftovers – we plan to boondock for a few nights as we head north. She made a Greek pork stew that was tasty and a big pot of pea soup.

Greek pork stew

Monday morning we hitched up the trailer and I pulled it into the street. I tried to back the Spyder into the trailer with its wounded engine thumping on one cylinder, but it wouldn’t go up the ramp without stalling. Luckily, a couple of guys were working nearby and helped me push it up the ramp into the trailer.

We drove about 15 miles up I-5 and exited near Anlauf. From there we hit a county road called Territorial Highway. This was a twisty road with lots of short, steep climbs and downgrades – and no shoulder in parts. All along this route, we saw signs for wineries. If the Spyder was operational, I could see us taking winery tours in this area.

Our destination was Richardson Park – a county park/campground on Fern Ridge Lake near Veneta, west of Eugene, Oregon. I had an appointment set for Tuesday morning at Source Engineering in Veneta – about 10 minutes away from Richardson Park.

Last summer, we had a cooling fan failure on the coach. The cooling fan is driven by a hydraulic motor. The speed of the fan is regulated by a wax-valve thermostat. The wax in the valve expands with heat and drives a tapered piston into a seat where the fluid bypasses the fan motor. When the piston fully seats and closes the bypass, the fan runs at its highest speed. When the wax is cold – meaning the coolant is cold – the valve is open and fluid bypasses the hydraulic motor and the fan doesn’t turn.

When our wax-valve failed, the only replacement parts I could find were in England and would take a week to arrive. So, I had a stop-gap repair made that was intended to be temporary. I had the line for the bypass capped off so no fluid could bypass the hydraulic motor. This meant the fan always ran at full speed regardless of temperature. This really wasn’t harmful – the coolant temperature in the engine block was regulated by the thermostat in the coolant passage. But it has drawbacks – it takes horsepower to drive the fan. The amount varies with engine speed, but it takes an average of more than 30 horsepower to drive the fan. This in turn reduces fuel economy. Also, there’s the wear and tear of running the hydraulic motor full-speed, full time.

Later, I found out that Source Engineering had the Sauer Danfoss wax valves. They make a conversion kit to retrofit the mechanical wax valve system into late model coaches with electronically controlled cooling fan motors. The electronic control units have a high failure rate – I often hear newer Monacos or Holiday Ramblers with their fans running at high speed at start up as they leave an RV park with a cold engine. The mechanical wax-valve system rarely fails.

On Tuesday morning, we left the trailer in our site and drove to Source Engineering’s shop. We arrived at 8:15am and they took our coach in straight away. It took about an hour and a half to get the hydraulic lines uncapped and sorted and the new valve installed. They also added a restrictor to the bypass line so the fan will always run at a minimum of about 800 rpm. This is a good idea – regardless of temperature, the fan will draw air across the charge-air cooler and condenser and if the wax valve ever fails, the fan will provide some cooling. At full speed with the wax valve fully closed – this occurs at 198 degrees of coolant temperature – the fan turns at 2,500-3,000 rpm.

In the service bay at Source Engineering

I had another issue for them to look at. Our front sway bar bushings are worn and the sway bar is loose. I tried to tighten it, but it seems the loose bushings allowed the bar to rub and damage the link rod threads. I couldn’t tighten it. They checked it out and confirmed the links needed to be replaced. The bad news was, they didn’t have the links we needed in stock. The good news was, they could get them from Roadmaster in Vancouver, Washington and have the parts in a day or two.

So, we extended our stay at Richardson Park until Thursday, possibly Friday. Richardson Park isn’t a bad place to be stuck. It’s a beautiful park with paved sites and grassy areas and lots of trees. And it’s right on the lake. Fern Ridge Lake is a reservoir on the Long Tom River. It covers over 9,300 acres and is a little over four miles long. It’s a popular spot for sailboats, power boats, water skiing and fishing. In the summer, the prevailing wind from the north is strong in the afternoon making it ideal for sailing. There are boat clubs and marinas on the lake.

Site 38 at Richardson Park – 50 amp electric service and water

Before we returned from Source Engineering, we made a detour to hit Walmart in west Eugene – about 12 miles away from Veneta. Donna needed to pick up a few items to meet her menu plans for the rest of the week and I took the opportunity to stock up the beer supply.

Between the Spyder, the sway bar links and my laptop troubles, it seems like everything is going down at once. We’ll get it sorted. Next week I’ll drop off the Spyder for repairs while we visit family in Arlington, Washington.

The weather here has been unusually warm. Yesterday the high was 91 degrees – about 20 degrees higher than average. Today will hit the mid-to-upper-90s before things start cooling off. Mid-70s should be the high by the end of the week.

Rolling the Dice

We’ve been without wheels since the Spyder came up with a dead cylinder Sunday afternoon. I detailed my diagnostic process in the last post. The new ignition coil module was supposed to come in on Wednesday, but when I checked with Valley Motorsports in Eugene, they told me the part wouldn’t be there until Thursday between 11am and 1pm.

Donna talked to our neighbor, Mickey, and found out that he and his wife were going to Roseburg Thursday morning. They said they could drop me off at Enterprise Rental Car in Roseburg. I called and reserved a car for pick-up Thursday morning.

I picked up the car around 9:30am and headed north – it was about an hour drive to Eugene. I had checked a map of the city and had a plan. First I stopped at Costco where I bought a few items including a new camp chair. It’s a folding director’s chair with a folding side table – not something I could easily carry on the Spyder, so I took advantage of having a car.

Next I went to the west side of town and checked out the Walmart. I wanted to see what the overnight parking situation looked like and I also needed to pick up aluminum drip pan liners for the Weber Q. From there I went to the Elks’ Lodge to see what it looked like for an overnight spot. The west side Elks’ Lodge is a no go for RV parking. The lot is tight and shared with several other businesses. I was hoping to find a place to dry camp Monday night so we could be close to Source Engineering in Veneta, Oregon where we have an appointment Tuesday morning.

After a quick stop for lunch at Taco Time, I found Valley Motorsports at 12:30pm. They said they would call when the part came in and I hadn’t heard from them yet. I checked at the parts counter and was told the day’s parts shipment had just arrived and was being checked in. I was going to sit in the waiting area and read a book while they did that, but a guy came out with my part after about three minutes!

I was 99% sure the ignition coil was the culprit for the lack of spark in the rear cylinder, but there was a small chance that it could be a fault in the Engine Control Module (ECM) which sends a signal to the coil pack. I couldn’t test for this signal without the proprietary B.U.D.S. computer program that’s only found at Can-Am dealers. Ignition components are not returnable once they’ve been installed. I rolled the dice and paid for the $170 coil pack.

An hour later, I was back at Timber Valley SKP Park and got to work. Mickey stopped by and offered to follow me to Roseburg when I returned the rental car. I told him that with any luck we’ll use the Spyder to get back from the rental car agency.

Well, my luck ran out on me and my roll of the dice was a loser. The coil pack didn’t fix the problem. I have no choice now but to take it to a dealer where they can interrogate the ECM and run through the diagnostic protocol to see why the rear ignition coil isn’t receving a signal. I know the primary voltage and grounds are good and the coil is new, so it must be a loss of signal to fire the coil that is the root of the problem. I took Mickey up on the offer to pick me up at the rental agency in Roseburg.

I have a coil pack for sale!

We’ve extended our stay here until Monday. Tomorrow morning I’ll drive the coach to Les Schwab in Sutherlin and have the tires replaced. Monday we’ll move to Richardson Park Campground on Fern Ridge Lake, just north of Veneta. After we have the work performed at Source Engineering on Tuesday, we’ll head north. Our original plan was to go to the coast, but now that’s changed.

We plan to get to my oldest daughter, Alana’s house in Arlington, Washington by the end of the week. From there, I can have the Spyder transported to the dealer in Mount Vernon and we’ll hang out in Alana’s driveway until it’s fixed. Sometimes the best laid plans go awry.

The days here have been warm – in the mid-80s until yesterday. Yesterday, the high was in the low 70s and a few rain drops fell in the afternoon. It rained overnight and showers continue today off and on. I need to bicycle into town at some point to pick up a general delivery package at the post office. We’ll be mostly homebound until we get the Spyder repaired. We’d hoped to check out some of the wineries and other sights around here, but that’ll have to wait until next time.

No post is complete without a dinner plate photo. On Tuesday, Donna prepared tortilla-crusted tilapia. This time she served it over a smear of avocado puree on the plate before she added the fish and salsa. She served corn with cilantro on the side.

Tortilla-crusted tilapia

Little Fish and Big Trouble

I mentioned in my last post that the upcoming weekend was a “free fishing weekend” in Oregon. So on Saturday morning, Donna and I loaded the tackle box and our fishing poles and rode the Spyder up to Cooper Creek Reservoir – about four miles away from Timber Valley SKP Park just east of Sutherlin.

The west end of the lake was crowded with fisherman – they had a youth fishing event scheduled there. So we went to the east end of the lake where we had scouted out another fishing access point. There were only a few people there. We didn’t have much luck. We spent about an hour and a half there and I only caught two small bluegill that I released. Meanwhile, Donna was skunked.

In the afternoon, Donna took the Spyder to the grocery store in town and bought a few things. She made salmon cakes for dinner, but she used a different recipe. This recipe was a little more involved than what she usually makes – it included capers plus chopped red peppers and red onion sauteed in butter versus the usual mayonnaise. She served an arugula salad on the side with the apple cider dressing we bought the day before at the farmers’ market. Tasty!

Salmon cake plate

On Sunday morning, after I watched the Moto GP race from Mugello, Italy, we went back to the reservoir and tried the west end this time – it wasn’t nearly as crowded as the day before. Even though it was free fishing weekend, we still had to pay $4/day to park at the reservoir. The Cooper Creek Reservoir is a long, narrow body of water stretching west to east then southeast. It’s large enough for water skiing and we saw a water skier and few people tubing behind powerboats.

West end of Cooper Creek Reservoir

Once again, the fishing wasn’t too hot and we were both skunked. We only saw a couple of fish caught although a dozen or so people were fishing.

Donna fishing for fish

When we came home, Donna hit the ice cream social at the park – she had a coupon for a free scoop of ice cream. After she came home, I fired up the Spyder to run an errand and trouble struck. It was only running on one cylinder. I did a cursory check, then decided to leave it for Monday morning. It was hot out in the direct sun and I didn’t feel like getting too involved with it.

The afternoon temperatures have reached the low 80s for the last few days and we run the air conditioners in the coach in the afternoon. Donna made a simple dish for dinner last night – spaghetti squash topped with beef ragu and shaved parmesan.

Beef ragu over spaghetti squash

This morning, I got to work on the Spyder. The first step, as always, was to peel the onion. To do anything mechanical on the Spyder, body panels have to come off. In this case, I had to remove seven panels with numerous fasteners. It’s tedious work.

An internal combustion gasoline engine needs a few things in order to work – you need fuel and air in the proper ratio, compression and a spark for ignition at the right time. For some reason, one of the cylinders wasn’t getting fuel or spark. To get to the spark plugs, I had to remove the air box. Everything is packaged so tightly on the Spyder, this job is easier said than done. After about an hour, I could finally pull the spark plugs.

I grounded the spark plugs and cranked the starter to see if I was getting a spark. No spark on the rear cylinder, good spark on the front one. I switched the plugs in the leads and tried again. No spark in the rear cylinder. This told me it wasn’t a problem with the spark plug. Next I switched the ignition wires at the coil and cranked the engine again. Still no spark in the rear cylinder. This told me the ignition wires weren’t the problem.

Without the specialty diagnostic equipment to check further, I relied on deductive reasoning. The ignition coil is a dual-coil unit. Both coils get primary voltage from the same source. Since one coil worked, it’s not a primary voltage problem. Since the ignition wires and the spark plugs were good, it left the coil as the most likely culprit. It’s possible that a fault in the engine control module could be preventing the rear coil from receiving a signal, but I don’t think that’s it. I’m putting my money on a bad ignition coil.

I checked around and the nearest dealer is in Eugene – about 60 miles away. I had them order a new coil assembly for $170. I found one for half that on Ebay, but it was sold “as-is” with no warranty and no returns. I didn’t trust it and I also didn’t know how long it would take to get. The dealer can get one in two days. I’ll have to rent a car and drive up to Eugene to fetch it. I put the plugs back in, the airbox on and reassembled most of the body work leaving off only what I need to access the ignition coil assembly. I spent a total of about two and half hours at this point.

Meanwhile Donna went out on her road bike for about an hour. After lunch, she went back out again on her beater bike – I call it that because it’s a rigid frame mountain bike she bought used for $25 – to town for a few items at the grocery store. When she returned, I commandeered the bike and rode to town. I stopped at the Les Schwab tire center to inquire about new tires for the coach. Our tires don’t have much wear after 40,000 miles, but they’re aging out. Our tires were manufactured in 2013 and after six years they’re beginning to show some checking – small cracks – in the sidewalls on at least two of the tires. I was hoping to get seven years out of them, but I won’t push it.

At Les Schwab, I asked Jeremy at the counter for a quote on replacement tires and I also wanted to know the DOT date codes on them. The Department of Transportation requires date codes on all passenger car and truck tires. The codes indicate the calendar week and year of manufacture. He called their warehouse and they had six Toyo M154 295/75 x 22.5 tires with DOT codes of 1419. This means they were made calendar week 14 of 2019 – two months ago. We were good to go.

I wanted to replace the tires here in Oregon because there’s no state sales tax here. On a $3,200 tire bill, that means a significant savings. I ordered the tires and we’ll have them installed on Saturday – oh, I should mention that we extended our stay here in Timber Valley SKP Park until Monday, June 10th.

The forecast calls for a couple more warm days, then much cooler on Thursday and Friday with a chance of rain on Friday. Hopefully I’ll have the Spyder project done by then and dry weather when I take to the coach to Les Schwab on Saturday.

*Just so you know, if you use this  link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

No Camping in the Campground

We pulled out of Rolling Hills RV Park around 10am on Wednesday and headed north on I-5 from Corning, California. We intended to go to Lake Shastina to boondock on BLM land at a free campground there. The terrain soon changed after we passed through Red Bluff as we left the Sacramento Valley and started climbing. We drove past Shasta Lake which appears to be at full capacity – no more drought conditions here!

We climbed a series of summits ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 feet above sea level – some of them were 6% grades. Along the way, Donna researched a bit and found some depressing news. Lake Shastina campground had been closed to overnight camping in August of 2017. We only spent one night there before and were looking forward to spending several days there this time. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “The Lake Shastina campground, with no camp host or enforcement, was closed indefinitely last week after it had turned into a party pad for young locals.”

I also read that overnight restrictions were strictly enforced. This raises a question in my mind. If you can vigorously enforce a “no camping” restriction on public land, then why can’t you enforce alcohol restrictions instead of locking everyone out? Maybe it has something to do with the development of high-end housing nearby in the Lake Shastina community. Sounds like someone has the local powers-that-be in their pocket. No camping in the campground – what?

We pressed on to Yreka, California where we stayed at a Walmart several years ago – I wrote about that in this post. I wrote about how we ran into Clarke and Elaine Hockwald (Whatsnewell) at that time. We arrived at Walmart and were foiled again. Apparently, Yreka has banned overnight parking. We regrouped and went to the Rain Rock Casino which opened in the last year or so on the east side of I-5 in Yreka. There we were welcome to dry camp overnight.

After a quiet night at the casino, we were back on the road 10:30am Thursday. Our new destination was Sutherlin, Oregon. We stayed on I-5 and hit the Oregon Border just before mile marker 797. That’s right – I-5 traverses the length of California from the Mexico border to Oregon – nearly 800 miles! About four miles into Oregon, we crossed Siskiyou Pass at 4,315 feet above sea level – the highest point on I-5.

After climbing the steep grade up Siskiyou Pass, we had a six-mile steep downgrade, descending 2,300 feet in that distance. The Interstate through southern Oregon is in the Siskiyou mountain range and has several steep climbs and descents. It’s only two lanes for the most part and I had to stay aware of slow trucks climbing ahead of us and fast moving cars coming from behind. I tried to judge the closing speeds so I could maintain momentum and pass the trucks which were only going about 30-35 mph while we maintained 50mph. I was able to shoot gaps in the car traffic which was moving at closer to 70mph.

We found the Timber Valley SKP Park in Sutherlin. This park is only open to members of the Escapees club – we’re members. We booked a week on full hook-ups for a bargain rate of $132. At check-in, the clerk suggested site 10 – she said it was large and had good satellite reception. We walked over to look at the site.

Site 10 is about 50 feet wide with a concrete pad in the center and a garden shed in the back. The rear of the site is bordered by Cooper Creek, making the rear boundary irregular. The depth of the site varies from about 50 feet to 75 feet. We agreed it was a great site for us. Walking back to the office, I noticed a Nexus class A diesel coach that checked in just ahead of us. They had disconnected the car they towed behind it. As we approached, the guy put the coach in gear and reversed with a bang into the car! I don’t know what he was thinking – maybe he thought he was in drive, not reverse. I guess he’ll have two insurance claims!

We dropped the trailer on one side of the concrete pad and set up the coach on the other side. It’s a nice site with lots of room.

Timber Valley SKP park site 10

In the evening, our neighbor in site 9 came over and introduced himself. His name is Mickey Thompson – I said, “That’s a famous name.” He said, “Yeah, he has all the fame and money, I have the good looks.”

We also had a visit from the Welcome Wagon here at the SKP park. Sandy gave us a few local brochures and a couple of gifts – two fabric coasters hand made by park members.

Donna grilled shrimp, bok choy and a medley of asparagus, baby bella mushrooms and peppers for dinner.

Shrimp and veggie plate

When we stayed here a couple of years ago, we dry-camped for one night only. At that time, we found wildlife in the park – wild turkeys and jack rabbits. They’re still in the area and I was told that bobcats and bears have been seen in the park at night. Donna was surprised to see a deer lying out in front of the clubhouse in the late afternoon.

This morning, Donna and I took the Spyder out and explored. We found a Visitor Center that was loaded with information and free maps of the western states. I like paper maps – most of ours were several years old though. I gathered a handful of new maps to replace them. We also found a small farmers’ market. However, fresh produce won’t be available here for another month or so, unlike northern California where the farmers’ market had plenty of local produce. We did pick up a jar of homemade apple cider vinaigrette after tasting a bit at the market.

We also took a ride out to Cooper Reservoir to check out fishing spots. This coming weekend is free fishing weekend in Oregon – no license required. The reservoir was stocked with 2,000 legal size trout last week. I think we’ll give it a try if I can figure out how to haul our fishing poles on the Spyder.

The weather is beautiful – afternoon highs near 80 degrees, clear skies and overnight lows in the 50s. The forecast calls for more of the same in the coming week. I’m thinking we might want to extend our stay beyond a week. I have an appointment to get some work done on the coach near Eugene on the 11th. So, we need to stay in this area until then.

I have a rack of babyback ribs on the Traeger wood pellet-fired smoker grill as I type this. We bought the ribs at the store in town and they weren’t trimmed very well. After removing the membrane from the underside of the ribs, I had to trim a fat cap from the meaty side – about a quarter-pound of fat. It’s all good now though and I’m looking forward to tonight’s dinner.

*Just so you know, if you use this  link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!