Category Archives: Alpine Coach

Red Wings

Yesterday, while Donna went out for a bicycle ride, I puttered around and continued preparations to move on. No offense to my friends in the area, but when you’re a nomad, staying in one place this long becomes stale. I have one more appointment at the chiropractor tomorrow, then we’ll tie up loose ends over the weekend. We’ll roll out of here on Monday.

We’re thinking about making a stop near Wickenburg at the Escapees RV park. Then we’ll move on to Lake Mead and do some boondocking there. Our travel plans over the next two months are pretty loose. We need to be mindful of Donna’s business travel and be near major airports at certain times. Our current thought is to hit Las Vegas, then head east through Zion National Park and on to Denver. We’ll see how that pans out.

FedEx dropped off the coolant additive I ordered (I wrote about coolant testing and additives in this post). I used Fleetguard DCA4 supplemental coolant additive. I’ll test the coolant additive concentration again when we’re at our next stop.

Supplemental coolant additive

The temperature rose well into the 90s yesterday. I had both air conditioning units running by noon. Today, the forecast calls for a high of 98. Tomorrow will also be very warm before the temperatures drop back into the 80s over the weekend. We’ll have to take advantage of the pool while we can.

After my chiropractor appointment in the afternoon and a stop for a cold one at Red, White and Brew, I came home and watched the Detroit Red Wings versus the Pittsburgh Penguins. At the end of regulation play, the game was tied 3-3. This gave Detroit one point, which was exactly what they needed to clinch a playoff spot for the 23rd consecutive season.

After the game, Donna and I watched a couple of recorded episodes of Dexter and called it a night.

Today, I want to clean and polish the wheels on the left side of the coach. It’s shaded on that side in the morning. I’ll wait until we have cooler weather to do the right side.

Heating Up

Monday was just another day. I didn’t have much to write about yesterday, so I took a day off the blog. Most days Donna has work to do. She’s either writing, working on book promotions, doing magazine interviews or just taking care of business. I generally don’t have anything real pressing on my agenda. The only appointment on my calendar for Monday was a visit to the chiropractor for an adjustment and therapy.

Sometimes, balancing my carefree days with Donna’s work schedule can be challenging for one or both of us. If she has phone interviews, or is really working hard to hit a deadline, I find things to do outside the coach to give her space. That doesn’t sound too tough, right? It really isn’t, but it’s something to consider if you’re going to live in a confined space. The nice part is, we can be in places where being outside is nearly always an option. It’s great to be able to choose our climate!

The weather has gone from warm to very warm (it’s not hot in Arizona until the thermometer hits 110F). Monday was 89 degrees and yesterday was over 90. We ran the air conditioners both days. The forecast calls for highs near 100 by the end of the week. If we would have left Mesa on schedule, we would have gotten out before things heated up.

Yesterday, I started re-organizing the trailer. I needed to come up with a better way to hang our bicycles and figure out where my new mountain bike will go. I’ve been hanging our bikes with a nylon cord strung through the roof bows. This worked fine except the edge of the roof bow cut into the cord.

Cord strung through trailer roof bow

I went to the hardware store with a vague notion of what I wanted to do. Sometimes I’ll browse through the hardware section until I see something that fits my needs, without knowing precisely what I’m looking for. That was the case on this visit. I found shallow “U” shaped hangers that I attached to the roof bow with self-drilling screws. The cord shouldn’t chafe on the smooth surface and it should be more than strong enough. I installed two of the hangers where my road bike and Donna’s bike usually hang.

Hanger attached to trailer roof bow

Next, I needed to figure out where my mountain bike will fit. This presented more of a challenge than I thought it would. The mountain bike has a longer wheelbase. The long wheelbase coupled with big 29″ wheels and tires requires a lot of space.

Donna came out to the trailer and looked around. She gave me a few ideas on repositioning some of the bins. She’s the organizing expert after all. After I cleared a few things out and repositioned the bins, a few minutes with the measuring tape and I was set. With the front wheel removed, I can hang the mountain bike upright from two hanger points. If I turn the wide handlebar so it’s parallel with frame, it fits. I’ll take a picture when I get everything packed up this weekend.

After I had the trailer straightened out, I took a short snooze on the sofa. Then I showered and rode over to the Red, White and Brew to have a cold one with the guys. While I was there, I found some sad news on Facebook. My former colleague and friend, Sergio Bianchi, passed away suddenly on Sunday. I’m stunned by the news. RIP, Sergio, you’ll be greatly missed.

When I returned, I helped Donna prepare a Cornish hen. I used poultry shears to cut out the back bone. I removed the ribs with a small knife. This allowed me to butterfly the hen for grilling. Donna prepared it simply with olive oil, salt and pepper, while I started the grill. We grilled the hen using the brick method I wrote about in this post. As always, the brick grilling method worked like a charm. The hen was juicy and very good.

Cornish hen under a foil wrapped brick

Looking good

Donna served the hen with pan fried artichoke hearts, whole wheat couscous and Sriracha green beans. Another tasty and nutritious meal!

Tasty!

Today, I have another appointment at the chiropractor. Other than that, it’s another carefree day.

Sea Eagles

Donna’s friend, Audrey, picked her up to go kayaking at Saguaro Lake early yesterday morning. Audrey has a couple of Sea Eagle 330 inflatable kayaks. She brought one for Donna to use. They met up with a few of Audrey’s friends who also have inflatable kayaks.

Donna had a great time cruising on Saguaro Lake. They saw a bald eagle roosting on a rocky ledge. They explored a few coves and watched all the boating activity and fishermen on the lake. And now Donna has a Sea Eagle inflatable kayak on her wish list.

Kayaks inflated, ready to launch

Audrey and Emma on Saguaro Lake

Donna having fun on the water

After watching the Formula One race from Bahrain, I posted to the blog. I also watched the Red Wings game that was played Saturday in Montreal – it was re-run on the NHL Network. I didn’t know the outcome of the game, so I had to stay with it until the end. The Red Wings overcame a 3-0 deficit to tie the game in the third period. Exciting stuff! Then they allowed two goals and lost by a score of 5-3.

I spent most of the day studying spring weather trends and places to go when we leave here. After much discussion, we have a general plan now. Donna has some business travel coming up at the end of May and another possible trip at the end of this month. Our plans include being near a major airport for her travel days.

I’m off to the chiropractor for another adjustment and physical therapy.

Delayed Departure

I went to the chiropractor on Friday for another adjustment and therapy. Dr. Pavtis reviewed my neck x-rays with me. The alignment issues are obvious. She also pointed out an earlier injury – an old fracture on C7. It looked worse than I thought it was. When it happened, I remember the doctor telling me it was a small fracture in the transverse process, no big deal. I had other injuries at the time that were bigger concerns. Looking at the X-ray now, the fracture clearly went through the entire vertebra, not just the transverse process. But this has nothing to do with my current situation.

Years of living with an imbalance due to neck dissection surgery has left me with poor alignment and improper curvature in my cervical vertebrae and upper back. Dr. Pavtis wanted to put me on a six-week treatment program. I don’t think we’ll do that. We settled on a few more treatments and stretches and exercises that I can continue on my own. This pushes our departure from Mesa back another week. We’re flexible with our travel plans, but the Phoenix area will soon become too hot to stay here in a motorhome.

On Friday night, Donna and I went to the Roma Cafe Ristorante. We used to eat there occasionally when we lived here before. We were a little confused though. The restaurant was in a plaza on Main Street, east of Power Road. I was sure we never went to dinner there. When we walked in, it was all very familiar. It’s family run and we saw familiar faces and decor. Donna asked if they moved the restaurant. Sure enough, our memories were correct. It used to be on the corner of McKellips and Recker. The food is reasonably priced and quite good with some authentic Italian specialities on the menu.

Yesterday, we were up early. Donna competed in the El Tour de Mesa bicycle race. We loaded her bike in the Toyota Highlander that we borrowed from Lana and arrived at the starting area at Red Mountain Ranch about an hour before the 8:15 am start. The 28-mile race was Donna’s first mass start bicycle race. She’s raced in duathlon and triathlon events before, but those aren’t mass start races. At the starting gun, she was off in a pack of a few hundred racers.

Donna in the center of the photo waiting for the start.

After they were off, I drove back home. I had a leisurely breakfast, then drove over to the finish area downtown at the Mesa Convention Center. Along the race route, police officers were controlling traffic at the intersections. The bike racers were given priority and didn’t stop at the intersections. I arrived at the finish line about 45 minutes before Donna thought she would be there. I didn’t want to miss her finish.

The finish line at the convention center.

About nine minutes later. I looked up the road and saw a couple of bikes come around the corner. By the time I recognized Donna, she was flying past me. I called out her name and walked past the finish line to find her. She finished 21 minutes ahead of her anticipated time. She was exhilarated. She had a great race.

We put her bike and gear into the Toyota and walked back to collect her medal. We checked the official finish times and saw that Donna was 2nd in the women’s 50 – 54 age group. I was proud to see she averaged 17 MPH over the course. She’s really motivated for the race in Great Falls now!

After we checked the results, we stopped at a lunch wagon for street tacos. The carne asada tacos were spicy and very tasty.

We came home and relaxed for awhile – we each took short naps. Then it was time to return Lana’s Toyota. A few weeks ago we left a 2 terabyte external hard drive with Lana’s boyfriend, Joel. He loaded the hard drive with more than 900 movies, several TV series and a large music library! Joel showed me how to set up the drive and access the library, then he drove us home.

Donna prepared a special chicken dish for dinner. She marinated boneless chicken breasts in olive oil, balsamic vinegar and fresh herbs. Then she cut each breast in a way that effectively made the breast into one long strip of meat. She then wrapped the chicken around an asparagus spear and a scallion.

Chicken XXX ready to grill and breast cut into strip.

One roll-up ready to grill and one breast cut into a long strip

I put the chicken on the grill. The trick was to lower the heat after getting the grill marks so the asparagus and scallion would cook without overcooking the chicken.

Chicken roll-ups on the grill

Donna served the chicken with steamed asparagus and garlic mashed red potatoes. A meal fit for royalty!

Served with asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes

After dinner, I set up the hard drive with my laptop connected to the TV. We watched the end of Breaking Bad. We have so much entertainment to choose from thanks to Joel, Donna will cancel her NetFlix subscription.

This morning Donna went kayaking at Saguaro Lake with her friend, Audrey, and a few of Audrey’s friends. I’m watching the Formula One race from Bahrain. We’ll see what the rest of the day will bring.

Getting Ready to Roam

Yesterday, after Donna returned from her morning bicycle ride, I took the scooter over to the NAPA store on Main Street. They had ordered coolant test strips for me and they were in. Coolant test strips are strips of paper with three treated pads on them. They work like litmus paper. One pad tests the PH of the coolant, one tests the coolant freeze point and one tests the concentration of coolant additive (nitrite). After dipping the strip in coolant, you compare the color of the pads against charts to read the levels.

The nitrite level is important for heavy-duty diesel engines. The additive protects the cylinder liners from damage. There’s a very technical theory on how coolant can be knocked away from the liners by vibration, which creates an area of vacuum that the coolant rushes back into, colliding with the liner and eventually eroding the steel liner. The additive, which protects against this, slowly depletes. Heavy-duty diesel coolant should be tested periodically and if necessary, supplemental coolant additive (SCA) needs to be added to the coolant.

After testing our coolant, I see that we need a maintenance dose of SCA. Today I’ll see if I can find SCA at a car or truck dealership. I need to add one pint per 20 gallons of coolant.

I also changed the external fuel filter in preparation of our summer travels. I’ll get started on the trailer re-organization today. Every time we sit in one place for a while, we seem to accumulate more stuff. In the last month, I’ve added another bicycle and Donna added a new bin and two boxes containing steam cleaners – Reliable Brio and Reliable Pronto. You’ll be hearing more about the steam cleaners because Donna has been asked to create videos for Camping World’s online catalog. I’ll find a way to make it all fit in the trailer.

Last night, we grilled cheeseburgers for dinner and hung out, watching television. Today, I have a follow-up visit with the chiropractor. Later, we’ll pick up a car our friend, Lana Jansen, generously offered to us. This will allow me to drive Donna and her bicycle to the start of tomorrow’s bike race. I expect a busy weekend ahead as we prepare to start roaming again.

Out of Alignment

Yesterday, I got ambitious in the morning. I put up the ladder and finally cleaned and polished the fiberglass crown around the roof. At one point, wind gusts kicked up and I had to move away from the edge of the roof and wait it out. It only lasted for a few minutes, then I was back at it. I did small sections at a time. It took me a little over an hour.

I’ve had a knot in a muscle between my spine and left shoulder blade, along with pain in my left shoulder for the last two weeks. After I put the ladder away, the knot in my back was worse. I made an appointment with a chiropractor who was recommended by Donna’s friend, Audrey. After lunch, I showered and rode the scooter to her office.

It turned out that I have some alignment issues in my neck and upper spine. This was no surprise. With the damage and surgeries I’ve had on my neck and shoulders, everything is out of balance. She made some adjustments. After two weeks of living with the knot in my back, I finally had some relief.

She didn’t think my shoulder pain was related to the alignment issues. It seems that I have two separate problems. Although the shoulder is painful, I have full range of motion, so I don’t think it’s anything too serious. They treated my shoulder with an ultrasonic device and electrical stimulation. Before I left, they taped my shoulder and advised me not to lift anything heavier than 12 ounces with my left arm. I’ll go back tomorrow for another treatment.

By the time I was finished with the treatment, it was 4pm. I went out to the scooter and found the temperature had dropped into the 60s. It was windy and dark clouds were coming from the west. I rode back home, chilled all the way. About 20 minutes after I returned, we had a little rain shower.

Last night, Donna cooked indoors. She made tilapia filets stuffed with crab meat – something her mother prepared for her on her recent visit. She served it with sauteed pearl onions, mushrooms and red peppers. I enjoyed a big bottle of Decadent Imperial IPA from Ska Brewing with the meal. Delicious.

Tilapia stuffed with crabmeat stuffing

Today, I have a few errands to take care of. I need to remove the aero bars from Donna’s bike. They aren’t allowed in the race she’s riding on Saturday. We still haven’t decided where we’ll go when we pull out of here on Monday.

Almost Bored

Yesterday started off with a great breakfast. Donna cooked sunny-side-up eggs for me in the Pampered Chef microwave egg cooker our friend Mona gave us. She served it with cilantro and avocado over skirt steak strips with salsa on the side.

Breakfast of champions

I puttered around most of the day. I’m still resting my sore shoulder, so that means no bicycling or anything strenuous. I need to get on the roof to clean and polish the crown where the roof meets the side walls of the coach. I hope I can do that next week. I don’t want to lift the ladder and climb it right now. For the first time since we hit the road, I’m getting a little bored, sitting around and waiting for my injury to heal.

FedEx delivered a couple of items I ordered through Amazon from Ryder Fleet Products. I bought new wiper inserts. The wiper blades on the coach are dry and cracking. That’s common in the southwest from sitting in the sun. My neighbor, George, gave me wiper blade covers to protect them when I install the new inserts.The covers are a mesh cloth that wraps around the blade and are held in place with velcro strips. They’re supposed to filter the sunlight and keep the blades cooler. I want to be sure we have good wipers when we hit the road. We could drive into a thunderstorm anytime, any place.

I also ordered two fuel filter/water separators. Diesel engines need a clean fuel supply. Filtration is necessary. Water can build up in the fuel tank from condensation. Any time we will be sitting in one place for more than a week, I try to have the tank as full as possible. With less air space in the tank, the chance of condensation forming is reduced.

The Fleetguard external fuel filter on our coach is also a water separator. It has a sensor on the bottom that plugs into a wiring harness on the coach. If we have excess water, it will illuminate a warning light on the dash. It also has a drain port on the bottom. The water will separate from the fuel in the bottom of the filter canister. Opening the drain will allow the water to run out.

Water in the fuel can cause corrosion in the fuel system. The other problem with water in the fuel is the formation of algae. Once this happens, it clogs the fuel filter and is hard to eradicate. I haven’t worried about it too much while we’re parked here in the dry desert air and I haven’t had to drain any water from the filter. However, once we start our travels again, I’ll start adding an algaecide additive to our fuel tank.

The water separator is in the service bay – the last bay on the right rear of the coach. This service bay allows access to the fuel filter, air filter and air filter restriction gauge, engine oil dipstick, transmission fluid dipstick, air suspension water drain and various relays and fuses.

Coach service bay

Last week I opened the air filter housing to look at the air filter. It looks okay and the restriction gauge shows 8 inches vacuum (H2O) – almost no restriction. I won’t replace the air filter element until the gauge reads above 20 inches H2O. Replacing air filters too soon isn’t a good idea. New air filters don’t have as much filtration efficiency as one that has already trapped some particulate matter. The trapped particulates act as added filter media. With the vacuum gauge set-up in the service bay, I’ll know exactly when we need to replace the air filter element.

I’ll replace the fuel filter/water separator next week, before we leave here. I don’t know for sure how old the current filter is. Barring any contamination issues, replacing the fuel filter/water separator will become an annual maintenance item. I ordered two of them so I can carry a spare on the road. If we get a tank of contaminated diesel fuel, I can change the filter on the side of the road.

Last evening, Donna and I had dinner at Red, White and Brew. Then we drove over to DNA Cycles to pick up Donna’s bike (she rented a car for the weekend). Afterwards, we came home and I watched the NCAA basketball tournament. Both Michigan and Michigan State advanced to the Elite Eight round. Dayton is in as well. San Diego State was eliminated Thursday night. Sunday’s games will determine the final four. This is my favorite basketball tournament.

I hope whatever is wrong in my left shoulder heals soon, so I can get some things done and quit moping around.

Under Pressure

Yesterday, the temperature stayed in the upper 70s – much cooler than the days before. Today is forecast to warm up back into the 80s. I’ll pull the window awnings out to shade the windows again since we don’t expect much wind.

I haven’t been very active the last few days. I’m resting my shoulder, hoping that whatever is wrong with it will heal. I’ve been spending too much time in the coach though. I finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner. Donna and I watched that movie again Wednesday night. She was bawling.

While I was sitting at the table yesterday, I looked out the window. A covey of quail were walking through our site. There were five or six of them. They seemed curious about our scooter. Two of them stopped under it and looked around. Then they climbed on the muffler and jumped onto the rear tire. One crawled through the engine compartment. Another jumped onto the floorboard, then hopped on the seat. I tried to take a couple of pictures. I knew they would scurry away if I opened the door, so I shot through the window glass. The window glass created a moire effect, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. The photos are poor, but I’ll share them anyway.

Quail curious about the scooter

This one wanted to take it for a ride.

Speaking of the scooter, Donna was going to ride it over to the optometrist to pick up her prescription and go grocery shopping. I told her I should check the tire pressure before she rode it, since I haven’t checked it for a few weeks. It’s not unusual for tires to lose 1 or 2 psi per month.

I try to keep our tires properly inflated. Under-inflated tires are the leading cause of tire failure, such as blow-outs. Improper inflation can also cause poor handling, increased wear and decreased fuel mileage. It’s not as easy to fill tires at gas stations as it used to be. Back when gas stations were full-service stations, there were hoses with air chucks next to the gas pump. You could inflate your tires for free while the gas was being pumped. It still only takes a few minutes though and it’s an important task that too many people neglect.

The tires on the scooter were down a couple of pounds. I got the Porter-Cable portable air compressor out of the basement compartment and filled the tires to the proper pressure. I also use this compressor to fill the tires on our coach. The front tires on our coach are inflated to 110 psi. This little compressor produces a maximum of 150 psi. The pump cuts in when the pressure drops to 125 psi, so the pressure is always high enough to fill a 110 psi tire.

Proper tire inflation is important when you only have two wheels under you. It’s also very important when you are driving a 40-foot, 30,000-plus-pound motorhome. Having said that, let me add that it’s important no matter what vehicle you are driving. Please take a moment out of your day and check your tire pressures. This might help you avoid problems down the road.

Last night, Donna prepared pork tenderloin with a new marinade. It was a ginger-soy-sherry marinade and it was really tasty. I grilled it along with asparagus spears and she baked a big sweet potato that we shared. Yum.

Tenderloin and asparagus on the Weber Q

Pork tenderloin, asparagus and sweet potato

Today, I think I’ll check the library in the clubhouse and see if I can find an interesting book to read. Then, I’ll relax at the pool and read it.

Car Nuts and Volts

Yesterday I was moving rather slowly. I pinched a nerve in my neck, probably an overuse issue from washing and waxing the coach with my arms up and my head tilted back. After I posted to the blog, I ordered a small pizza to go from the Red, White and Brew.

I spoke to Donna on the phone. She was on her way home from Albany, New York and waiting for a connecting flight in Chicago. Everything seemed to be on schedule. I was looking forward to her return home around 8pm.

When I picked up the pizza, I remembered there was a car show down the street from us at the Apache Wells Community Center. After lunch, I scootered over to the show.

People enjoying the cars

It seems like I’ve been running into live music everywhere I go lately.

The guy hiding behind the sax could really rip on the fiddle

There were several rows of cars on display.

Another row of cars

Some of cars really caught my eye. I didn’t take photos of all the cars I liked, but I’ll share a couple that I thought were really cool.

Yep…it’s a hemi

This 1962 VW Beetle with the canvas sunroof was a real beauty.

1962 VW Beetle

And it had a super-clean hot-rodded engine with dual Weber carbs, 2180cc.

I didn’t know what to think of this next one – it’s a motorcycle with a side car powered by an inline 6-cylinder car engine.

I spent about an hour looking at the cars. Then it was time to get stuff done.

When I returned to the coach, I thought I should take a look at the 6-volt battery bank that powers the house 12-volt system. We have a bank of four 6-volt deep-cycle golf cart batteries. These are flooded, wet cell type lead/acid batteries. The batteries are wired in pairs. Each pair is wired together in series – positive to negative. In effect, this creates a big 12-volt battery. Then the two pairs are connected together in parallel – positive to positive and negative to negative. This creates an even bigger 12-volt battery. Wiring in series makes the voltage additive; i.e., 6 volts plus 6 volts equals 12 volts. Wiring them in parallel makes the capacity (amp hours) additive, but voltage remains constant.

Our battery bank – the four golf cart batteries are wired together. The two 12-volt batteries in the left rear are starter batteries.

The flooded wet cell 6-volt batteries require maintenance. Our inverter charges the batteries when we are on shore power or when we run the generator. The electrolyte in the battery is 35% sulfuric acid and 65% water. The water will evaporate when the battery is being charged. Periodically you need to remove the caps and look at the electrolyte level. The lead plates inside each cell must always be completely submerged in electrolyte. If the plates are exposed to air, they will be damaged.

If you need to add water, you need to use distilled water. Tap water or drinking water contains minerals that will build up and eventually short the plates. Never add more electrolyte to a battery. Only the water evaporates, so only distilled water needs to be added. I use a turkey baster to add distilled water to each cell.

Use distilled water to top off batteries

I need to clean the dust off the batteries. That’s a chore for another day.

Donna made it home around 8pm. She had a great trip. She says the housewares show in Chicago was amazing and she met with some interesting people including a buyer for the Camping World catalog and representatives from the Home Shopping Network and QVC. I’ll share some of the goodies she brought home tomorrow. She also enjoyed visiting her parents who live west of Albany, New York. From all accounts, they are both doing very well although, like most people in the Northeast, they are ready for winter to be over!

We watched an old Quentin Tarantino movie called Jackie Brown last night. Donna was jet-lagged and barely stayed awake to the end.

Totally Tubular

Finding a suitable set of wheels for Donna’s bike was my top priority yesterday. The Bontrager Race Lite wheels on her bike had cracks in the rear rim. She paid the entry fee and has been training for the El Tour de Mesa bike race that takes place April 5th. I had a spare set of wheels in our old cargo trailer, but those Dirty, Rotten Thieves took them. Her friend, Dara, generously offered a set of wheels for Donna.

I drove Mike Hall’s Jeep over to Dara’s house in the morning. Dara left the wheels in her garage and gave me a code to enter. At first look I said, “Wow!” They were Mavic carbon fiber race wheels. Then I realized they were tubulars. Tubulars are a type of racing tire (we used to call them sew-ups). Tubular tires have the tube inserted, then the tire casing is sewn together at the inner circumference. This allows very high tire pressure for racing. The tire is glued to the rim, which has a shallow depression to fit the tire.

Tubular tires are race specific. They are not an ideal deal choice for all-around use. If you have a puncture, you have to replace the tubular tire. In a racing situation, ideally you have a support person replace the entire wheel assembly so you can rejoin the race. It was very generous of Dara to offer her the wheel set, but I didn’t think it would work out for Donna.

I came back home and looked on the Internet and checked local bike shops for wheels. The local bike shops stocked both extremes of the market – they either stocked cheap wheels that weren’t suitable or they had high-end $2,000 racing wheel sets. We needed something in between. I bit the bullet and went to DNA Cycles to order a custom-made wheel set. Donna should have new wheels before the end of next week. Happy birthday Donna…your present is two months early!

I dropped off the Jeep at Mike’s place and picked up the scooter. Mike’s wife, Jodi, told me they would be at Baja Joe’s Mexican Cantina at 3pm and I was welcome to join them.

I rode back home and took prescription-strength ibuprofen for the pain in my left shoulder. Getting old really hurts sometimes. Between the mountain biking and the wash/polish job on the coach, I’ve aggravated a nerve in my left shoulder. I kicked back and read for a while, did a load of laundry and took a short nap.

At 3pm, I rode over to Baja Joe’s and found Mike and Jodi out on the patio. We were joined by Mike’s friend, Don, and his wife. Then Jodi’s twin sister, Julie, joined us. The tacos were great and the beer was cold. We sat outside and talked until about 6pm.

Last night, I watched some of the NCAA basketball tournament and nursed my sore shoulder. It’s still bothersome this morning, but not as bad as yesterday.

Donna is scheduled to fly into Phoenix around 7pm tonight. It will be great to have her back! I’ll tidy up the place today. I should check the electrolyte levels in the bank of 6-volt house batteries. I think a trip to the Jacuzzi to soothe my shoulder is also a good idea.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Alpine Coach

Red Wings

Heating Up

Sea Eagles

Delayed Departure

Getting Ready to Roam

Out of Alignment

Almost Bored

Under Pressure

Car Nuts and Volts

Totally Tubular

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