Yesterday I spent time getting settled in. It’s a little bit of an adjustment, going from the wide open spaces in the desert back to a city setting. As I’ve said before, both places have their pluses and minuses. There’s always a trade-off. That’s the beauty of this lifestyle – we’re not locked into one or the other. We’ve committed to a month here at Apache Wells RV Resort. The monthly rate is favorable. It works out to about $23/day plus electricity. At this time of year, we don’t really need to use air conditioning or heat, so our electric bill should be low.

Yesterday, I used the on-site laundry facility to catch up on 10 days worth of laundry. We didn’t do any laundry at McDowell Mountain Regional Park, because the washer/dryer on board would put too much water into the gray tank. Our Splendide washer/dryer combo works really well, but it can only handle small loads. I thought it would be best to use the large, commercial machines here to catch up all at once. Then we can keep up on the laundry as usual with the Splendide.

The washing machines in the Laundromat here don’t accept coins or cash. You have to purchase a card in a separate machine at the office, then insert that card into the washer or dryer. I read the instructions and put a five-dollar bill in the card machine and pressed the “New Card” button. The machine dispensed a card with a micro-chip in it.

I loaded two large washing machines in the laundry room. Then I inserted the card. The display on the machine read “Card Value $0.00.” What happened to the five bucks I put in the card machine? I walked back to the office and asked about it. They told me the five bucks paid for the card and that I have to re-insert the card along with another $5 minimum.

I didn’t have any more cash on me, so I walked back to our site and got a $20 bill from Donna. I took that to office, had them break the $20 (I didn’t want to load the card with $20) and loaded the card with $5. Then I walked back to the laundry room. There was a guy standing in front of the machines I had put the clothes in. He asked if I was finished with those machines. I told him what happened and he said he went through the same thing. What a rip-off. Five bucks to be the proud owner of a card with no value! Each washing machine costs $1.25 per load – same for the dryers. So my two loads of laundry cost five bucks. Add the price of the card and I’m out $10 for two loads of laundry.

I was told the card doesn’t expire for three years. So I can reload the card anytime I want to use the laundry facilities. I guess if we were to use it regularly, the price of the initial card purchase would average down. I don’t want to sound like a cheapskate, but I feel like I was taken for five bucks.

Later, I washed the scooter. Although I covered the scooter, the storm last weekend left it a bit of a mess. The wind and heavy rain found its way past the cover. I really should buy a good fitted cover for it.

I want to take advantage of the ability to wash our coach while we’re here. The coach looks good. I wiped it down with microfiber cloths after the storm. But I want  to wash and wax it. I’m thinking I’ll do it in sections, maybe spend two or three days at it instead of trying to do it all at once. I’ll spend two or three more days thinking about it.

Donna had a visitor in the afternoon. Kathleen Romagnoli drove over from Estrella on the west side to visit. It was the first time she and Donna met face to face. They connected online four years ago and were both looking forward to finally getting together. While we were sitting outside talking, we saw our neighbor across the street start to back his truck out of the driveway next to his 5th wheel trailer. There was a small step ladder behind his truck. We yelled, “Stop!”

I walked over and removed the ladder from beneath his bumper. He got out of the truck and thanked me. He said he was only moving a couple of feet and forgot about the ladder. I would guess he’s about 70 years old. He said he was working on the truck, lubing the Pac brake when he spilled some oil. He also dropped a wrench and it was stuck between the radiator and frame. With the truck back a couple of feet, he could clean the oil spill, but wasn’t sure how to retrieve the wrench.

I looked it over. It was indeed stuck in a difficult to reach place. I got a mechanics magnet from my tool box and tried to lift the wrench, but it was too heavy for the magnet. Once he cleaned the oil spill, I crawled underneath the truck. I could just reach the wrench and was able to remove it. That’s how it is in RV parks. People watch out for each other and help out whenever they can.

Today I have a dental appointment at 1:30pm. I need to have an onlay removed and replaced with a crown. They’ll remove the onlay and grind the tooth, then install a temporary cap today. In about two weeks, I’ll have to return to have the crown fitted.

Yesterday the weather guessers had it right. As predicted, after a short pause in the rainfall, we were slammed by thunderstorms. The precipitation fell in short, heavy bursts, then would taper off. At times, the sun broke through the clouds. At one point, I had the door open and let some warm, fresh air in through the screen door. That didn’t last long though.

Donna’s friend, Julia, picked her up around 1:30pm and they went to a Cabi clothing party in Fountain Hills. While she was out, I thought it would be a good time to practice guitar. I plugged in my guitar amp stand next to the co-pilot’s seat and got my Gibson ES-339 out. I played for about an hour and had fun rocking out in the coach.

On their way back from the party, Donna and Julia stopped at the Fountain Hills bike shop. Donna picked up her race packet there. The packet included her race numbers to be displayed on her bike, helmet and jersey. It also had a bar glass stenciled with the race logo and a few small goodies.

After Donna returned, we saw a large storm cell to the north of us. I thought it might pass by without much effect as it seemed to be far enough away. I was wrong. We started experiencing high winds as the cell approached. Then we were blasted with intense rain fall. Sheets of big, heavy rain drops. I jinxed us when I said, “At least it’s not hail.” Within minutes, we had pea-sized hail drumming on the roof of our coach.

Large storm cell

The heavy rain from this cell caused water to puddle on top of the living room slide-out. Water puddled faster than it could drain. After a while, we had water intrusion through the slide seal near the microwave oven. I used the hydraulic jacks to lower the left side as well as the rear of the coach. This allowed the water to run off of the top of the slide. I left the coach tilted overnight and leveled it this morning.

After each thunder storm passed by, there would be areas of flooding. Our site had a large puddle under the coach.

Rain water puddling in our site

The ground would drain quickly though between bouts of rain.

The puddle didn’t last long once the rain stopped

Storm cells continued to pass through the area. Around 8:30pm, Donna received a call from her training partner alerting her to the email message she just received from the race organizers. They had canceled the race. She was disappointed, but felt some relief at the same time. She wasn’t looking forward to rising from bed at dark-thirty to ride to the race start area on a cold, wet morning. Also, parts of the road were likely to be flooded in the morning and could have sand and debris in places.

Donna is planning to ride the road course later today, once it warms up. The forecast is calling for temperatures to reach the upper 60s today. I’ll start organizing the trailer in preparation for tomorrow’s move back to Mesa. Tomorrow will be a busy move day, so I don’t think I’ll post again until Tuesday.

Donna signed up for another race in Mesa on April 5th. I guess we’ll extend our stay there.