Category Archives: Alpine Coach

Wait and See

I wrote about our dinner at the Brew Project with our friends Bob and Sini in my last post. When we went out Friday night, Donna and I both left without our smartphones, so I didn’t have any pictures. Sini sent us a photo Bob took with her phone after dinner.

Sini, Donna and me

Sini, Donna and me

We drove the rental car up to Menifee on Saturday to visit my step-dad, Ken. Ken was diagnosed with an abdominal aorta aneurysm – this is a serious problem with the large blood vessel coming from the heart through the thorax and abdomen. Ken is 84 years old and not a good candidate for open surgery to repair the damage.

We visited with Ken and his neighbors, Ray and Helen. Helen had driven Ken to the emergency room Thursday after the enlarged aorta was found during a back x-ray. They performed a CT scan and confirmed the problem. Ken was in good spirits and seemed to be getting around fine. We were surprised to learn that in all of his years, Ken has never been to the hospital! He has another appointment on Wednesday to discuss the next steps. I’ve been reading information on the Internet and I don’t see a lot of options. We’ll find out in a couple of days.

The drive on I-15 and I-215 is always interesting. On the way home, traffic slowed to a crawl at the junction of the two freeways. I always expect heavy traffic near the Pechanga Casino, but this was unusually heavy and miles north of the casino. After stop-and-go travel for 20 minutes, we saw a multi-car wreck with damaged vehicles, emergency vehicles and tow trucks on the side of the road. Once past the scene, the traffic sped up and drivers were going 80 miles per hour and weaving through traffic again. Crazy!

Last week, I posted about the lithium-ion battery in our Verizon Jetpack blowing up again. A reader commented on that post with a great idea. He suggested using a timer on the 120-volt AC cord to turn the power on and off. This would allow the battery to discharge while the timer cut the voltage off and recharge when the timer is on. I thought this was a brilliant solution. Partially discharging and topping up the battery should solve the overcharging damage and a partial discharge shouldn’t affect the life of the battery like a full discharge would.

Last week, when I went to Al’s RV Parts in Yuma, I found a Radio Shack store right next door. I bought a digital wall timer there.

Digital 120-volt AC wall timer

Digital 120-volt AC wall timer

The only problem is, I don’t really know the discharge rate or the charging rate of the Jetpack. When I bought it, the Verizon guy told me it would run for about three hours on the battery. I used this as a guideline and programmed the timer to alternate periods of one hour off (battery discharging) with random one or two hours on intervals (charging). Theoretically, the one-hour off would discharge around 30 to 40 percent of the battery capacity. One hour on may not be enough to fully recharge it, so having some two-hour charge periods in the 24-hour program should keep it charged. After using it since Thursday, it seems to work fine. Hopefully I can get a few years worth of use out the battery without suffering another blow up.

Sunday was mostly a hang-out day for me as I watched NFL football. It seems wasteful to squander such beautiful weather – we had clear blue skies and the temperature was in the mid-70s. It’s easy to become complacent about the weather here in San Diego – the good weather is expected and often taken for granted. Having said that, there’s rain in the forecast this evening and in the early morning hours tomorrow before we resume the mid-70 sunny days.

Donna went out for run to Crown Point and back – two miles each way. She’ll head up to LA to run in a 5k at Universal Studios next weekend. Ozark the cat was a couch potato like me all day.

Ozark zonked out on our bed

Ozark zonked out on our bed

I saw terrible news on Facebook this morning. Our friends Jeff and Deb Spencer (Rollingrecess.com) were hiking the Flat Iron Trail in the Superstition Mountains in Arizona. After they reached the summit and started the descent, Deb fell and broke her arm and went into shock. Her wrist was shattered and will require surgery. She had to be rescued from the steep mountainside – it took 4 hours to get back down the mountain. Our thoughts go out to both of them and we wish Deb a full and speedy recovery.

Today I need to make “things to do” list. I have a number of things to attend to and I keep forgetting some of them. We’ll go out to lunch, then return the rental car.

 

Back to the Bay

In my last post I mentioned evidence of flash flooding in the area. Ogilby Road had apparently been flooded leaving sand, dirt and debris which was removed and piled into berms on the shoulder area. When we found the rock garden, it obviously had been flooded as well. The rock garden is on the edge of an arroyo. Fast moving water must have filled the arroyo and rearranged the rocks.

Here's a view of the rock garden from December 2014

Here’s a view of the rock garden from December 2014

This what's left of it

This is what’s left of it

Donna went for a walk before sunset. She met the owners of the Alpine Coach parked about half a mile away from us – they were the only other people within sight. They were Alpine Coach Association members Rick and Sue Niemeyer from Hemet, California. She visited with them for about 20-30 minutes. I was getting a little worried that she might get caught out after dark. Once the sun sets out here in the desert, it gets very dark quickly.

Sunset in the desert

Sunset in the desert

Donna made it back just as it was getting dark. She made a pan-seared steelhead trout filet topped with sauteed fresh ginger and scallions for dinner. Just because we’re boondocking, we don’t have to eat hot dogs and marshmallows!

Pan cooked salmon with rice and steamed spinach

Pan-cooked steelhead trout with basmati brown rice and steamed spinach

We had a mostly quiet night. When we went to bed, the lack of noise was almost eerie. In the early morning hours before sunrise, the wind kicked up and made a lot of noise. I was up in time to catch the sunrise which was a mirror image of the sunset the night before.

Desert sunrise

Desert sunrise

We hit the road at 9:40am and headed west on I-8. We made our usual stop on this stretch of road at the Buckman Springs rest area in the Laguna Mountains (map). We took a short break and Donna heated up leftovers for lunch in the microwave oven.

We crested the three 4,000+ foot summits – Tecate Divide, Crestwood Summit and Laguna Summit – then began the rapid descent to El Cajon. Our coach performed beautifully. The coolant temperature never exceeded 195 degrees on the climb over the summits and the Jake brake easily controlled our descent – I never touched the brake pedal all the way down.

The traffic thickened quickly near El Cajon and the drive over La Mesa into Mission Valley wasn’t exactly fun. It never ceases to amaze me when I see some of the bonehead moves car drivers make to try and gain an advantage of a few seconds or to overtake someone so they can take the off-ramp ahead of them.

We checked in at Mission Bay RV Resort around 1:30pm. We have site 135 for the next 31 days. After checking with the security supervisor, Thomas, I drove to our site with the trailer still attached. We unloaded the grills, scooter, chairs and a few other items from the trailer before we went to the storage lot and dropped the trailer. They don’t allow cargo trailers in the sites here. Trailers have to be left in the storage lot. It was handy to be able to unload most of what we’ll need before dropping the trailer. When it’s time to leave, I’ll have to deal with getting everything back to the trailer.

While I was setting up, I stood up and turned while attaching the fresh water hose. I smacked my head against the bottom corner of the bedroom slideout – again. It was a hard whack – I knocked myself down on my backside. My scalp is cut and my head still hurts.

Donna walked over to Enterprise Rental on Garnet Avenue to pick up a car. We rented a car for the weekend so we can visit my step-dad in Menifee today. He is having health issues and I want to see how he’s doing. While Donna went for the car, I scootered over to the Offshore Tavern and Grill for a quick cold one and to enter in this weekend’s football pool.

After we returned home, our friends Bob and Sini Schmitt from Edmonds, Washington picked us up. They are here at the park until next weekend. They took us to their son’s new bar/restaurant. Their son Beau had a partnership with a place called 57 Degrees where he ran The Brew Project. He just opened a new place on Fifth Avenue south of University last Monday. The new Brew Project has been a real project. Bob and Sini have been helping Beau remodel the two-story building and getting the place ready for business. It’s a cool old building in a hip part of town called Hillcrest. We sampled local craft beers – they had 24 beers on tap – and ordered dinner. I had the Havana torta which is carnitas, applewood smoked bacon, swiss cheese, sliced pickles and whole grain honey mustard on telera bread. It was outstanding.

Donna went out for a 3-mile run this morning. She’s planning to run a 5k with her sister Sheila and nephew Connor next weekend at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.

The weather here is just about perfect. The forecast high today is 74 degrees with clear blue skies. Overnight lows are around 60 degrees. The weather guessers are predicting more of the same for the next five days.

Yuma Checklist Done

There were a few things we wanted to get done while we were in Yuma, Arizona. Of course pickleball was high on our list – that’s why we booked three nights at Fortuna De Oro RV Resort. They have eight pickleball courts and lots of players.

The next thing I wanted to get done was a wash and wax of our coach. We had a crew come out on Tuesday afternoon. They washed the coach with a high-pressure soft water supply, towel dried it and hand applied Meguiare’s liquid carnauba wax. They did a nice job and they cleaned the windows really well. Two guys spent about three hours on it and it cost $140. This is a deal. In California a wash and wax job like this on a 40-foot coach would be $300.

They came back on Wednesday to clean our carpets. Donna has wanted to have this done for a while now. Most places charge too much to come out to clean a small area like ours. We only have carpeting in the bedroom and in the front seat area. These guys did it for $35.

Before they started on the carpets, I noticed water dripping from the fresh water hook-up. I tightened the hose, but I couldn’t get the drip to stop. I replaced the rubber washer in the hose connection but it continued to drip. The fresh water fitting that our fresh water hose hooks up to has been a little loose for a while. I figured the fitting was worn and creating the leakage.

I disconnected the fresh water hose and disassembled the fresh water connector. This connector has a brass coupler for the hose and a check valve where the water flows into the fresh water system of our coach. I forgot about the check valve and removed the fitting while the fresh water pump was turned on. Without the check valve water came out of the tubing inside the coach and squirted about 10 feet out the side! I called out to Donna, “Shut off the pump!”

I took the fitting with its plastic recessed mount and rode the scooter over to Al’s RV Parts about three miles away from the park. I wanted to match up a new coupler with the same recessed mount dimensions. I lucked out and found a perfect match. When I got back, I installed the new fitting.

Coupler and mounting pate removed - this is the PEX tubing that shot water 10 feet

Coupler and mounting plate removed – this is the PEX tubing that shot water 10 feet

Back side of the recessed mount with check valve

Back side of the recessed mount with check valve

After reattaching the hose, I saw water dripping. It was coming from the hose connection to the new coupler. I messed around with it and tried new rubber seals on the coupler but it still leaked. I finally discovered an invisible fracture on the hose end was causing the leak where it screwed on to the fresh water fill. The hose was the culprit! Our fresh water fill is oriented horizontally, parallel to the ground. The hose comes up through an opening in bottom of the wet bay. The hose has to make a 90-degree turn to attach to the fresh water fill fitting.

Hose attached to the fresh water fill. Hose makes a 90 degree bend to attach.

Hose attached to the fresh water fill. Hose makes a 90 degree bend to attach.

I rode the scooter back to Al’s RV Parts and bought a new Valterra drinking water hose. When I came back and hooked it up, I was in trouble again. As soon as I turned the water spigot on, water was shooting straight up from a cut in the hose! I disconnected the hose and saw a cut – it looked like someone had cut the hose with razor blade – maybe from a box cutter when it was unpacked.

I got on the scooter and made another trip to Al’s. They exchanged the hose for me. This time I was back in business. No water drips or leaking hose.

Donna and I walked down to the pool area for happy hour. They had a band playing – mostly covers of country hits. They also had a bar with drinks – a donation of two dollars bought a beer. I didn’t stay long. Donna got her hula hoops and went back to hoop to the music – she loaned one of her hoops out to anyone interested and she had fun.

This morning Donna and I played two hours of pickleball, then returned to the coach to shower and pack up. It was time to move on. We pulled out of Fortuna De Oro RV Resort around 11:45am. Our first stop was the Pilot/Flying J travel center. I filled our fuel tank with diesel fuel @ $2.26/gallon. We’re headed to California and I know I won’t find diesel fuel for that price there.

Next we made a stop at Walmart. We ate lunch at the Del Taco there and shopped. I resupplied our beer and bottled water while Donna bought paper products and a few other necessities. From there we headed west on 32nd Street to the Arizona Market Place. This is a flea market with stalls in long canvas covered aisles. It’s like the Arizona Market Place in Mesa, but on a much smaller scale. It’s open Thursday through Sunday. I stopped there to go to the RV Water Filter Store. That’s the company that I bought our two-canister fresh water filtration system from. I picked up two sediment cartridges and an activated carbon fiber block cartridge. When we set up in San Diego, I’ll change out our filter cartridges.

While I was at their booth, I saw something interesting. It was called a Kwik Link. It’s an angled coupler for the fresh water hose. This solves the problem of the hose making a 90-degree bend and putting strain on the fresh water hook-up. I bought the 105-degree Kwik Link to allow clearance from the recessed mount. The Kwik Link points down and comes with a quick coupler that screws on the end of the fresh water hose. This product appears to be very well made and it’ll extend the life of our fresh water hose and fresh water fill coupler.

Kwik Link on our fresh water fill

Kwik Link on our fresh water fill

We drove west on I-8 and entered California – another state for Ozark the cat to add to her list of visited states. At the checkpoint, the border patrol officer asked me what was in the trailer. That was a first. I told him and he asked if we had any plants or fresh produce on board. When I said, “No,” he waved me through.

We came back to our boondocking spot off Ogilby Road. I wrote about the rock garden here in this post and that’s where we are. We noticed the shoulders along the road looked like soft, deep sand. There were berms piled up in places. I told Donna they must have had a flash flood here and the sand was pushed off the road. At the rock garden there’s more evidence of a flash flood. The rock garden is worse for wear – it’ll take a fair bit of work to bring it back. We’re only here for one night, so we won’t attempt to repair it. I think the regular visitors from Washington who winter here will most likely repair it.

The only other coach within sight is an Alpine Coach with Montana plates we passed on the way in. The rock garden is about half a mile away from them. We’ll head out of here in the morning and check in at Mission Bay RV Resort at De Anza Cove in San Diego.

 

Electrical Gremlins

When we relocate, we don’t always go out and sightsee the area. We’ve spent time in Casa Grande before – we saw the Casa Grande ruins and Donna toured a working cotton farm. I wrote about it in this post. Our week in Casa Grande this time mostly revolved around playing pickleball. We started our days early, had breakfast and coffee and hit the pickleball courts around 8:30am. The park doesn’t allow pickleball before 8:30am due to noise complaints.

Of course the other thing we did most days was cook great dinners. On Saturday, I got the Traeger wood pellet grill out and cooked chicken quarters. Donna created a honey-sriracha glaze that I brushed on 15 minutes before I took the chicken off the grill. It was delicious. Donna served it with steamed asparagus and sweet potato mash.

Honey-sriracha glazed chicken hot off the grill

Honey-sriracha glazed chicken hot off the grill

Honey-sriracha glazed chicken with asparagus and sweet potato mash

Honey-sriracha glazed chicken with asparagus and sweet potato mash

On Saturday evening, we planned to watch a couple of episodes of Orphan Black. We have this new-to-us series on a hard drive that our friend, Joel, in Mesa recorded for us. We run the hard drive through my laptop which is connected to our TV with an HDMI cable. The show started to play, then the sound quit working. I was sure it had something to do with the laptop, but I couldn’t get it to work. Eventually I figured out that the sound worked on my laptop, but it wasn’t coming through the surround sound system.

Our coach is equipped with a DHS Mobile Theater System with QSurround 5.1. This system powers a five-speaker surround sound set-up. The amplifier has been running hot since we got the coach. I always open the cabinet that houses the amplifier to allow good air circulation to keep it from overheating.

I couldn’t get it to work, so we hooked up an external speaker to the laptop and used it for sound. On Sunday, I traced the wiring to the amplifier. I pulled the TV out of the cabinet. When the TV was upgraded to an LED flat screen, the installer did a good job of mounting the new TV. However, I found that he wired it incorrectly.

The TV has a mono audio output jack. He ran a connector from the mono output to a splitter, then ran two cables from the splitter to the stereo input on the amplifier. This created an impedance mismatch, hence the reason why the amplifier runs hot. The output from the mono audio output jack should have been run directly to the mono input of the amplifier. The DHS software would create a five-channel output from the mono input. It seems that the impedance mismatch burned out the amplifier.

The DHS amplifier also receives audio from the radio and creates a four-channel sound system. I tried operating that and it didn’t work either, leading me to believe the output stage of the amplifier is blown. The weird thing is, when I had the TV out, I disconnected the audio output jack and set the TV to run audio through the internal TV speakers. I got no sound from the TV. I’m finding it hard to believe that the TV internal sound system and the external DHS amplifier both blew at the same time. I need to investigate further. Meanwhile, I’ve watched four NFL football games without sound. It’s an interesting way to watch the games, but it can be hard to understand some of the penalties that are called without hearing the commentary. Yeah, I know – it’s hard to understand some of calls regardless of sound.

Donna had a new recipe going in the slow cooker all afternoon. She made pork tenderloin with apple, honey and cinnamon. It came out so tasty – kind of a sweet, Asian-flavored pulled pork.

Slow cooked pork with rice and green beans with almond slivers

Slow cooked pork with basmati brown rice and green beans with sliced almonds

We pulled out of Fiesta Grande RV Park on Monday and made the 170-mile drive to Fortuna De  Oro RV Resort in east Yuma (map). We stopped for lunch along the way at the Subway sandwich shop in Gila Bend. This Subway is located next to a truck stop with ample room to park a big rig. It even has a few full hook-up RV sites behind it!

When we arrived at Fortuna De Oro, there was a bit of confusion. I pulled into the driveway with a sign for Fortuna De Oro RV Park. There wasn’t any further signage or parking spaces. I continued down the road between park model home sites. I didn’t see any pull-through RV sites. Then I saw another entrance down the frontage road with a sign that read Fortuna De Oro RV Resort. I circled the RV park and got back on the frontage road and entered the drive at Fortuna De Oro RV Resort. There wasn’t anyone at the guard shack and I drove in. There wasn’t an office that we could see and the only signage was for the golf course and restaurant.

As we drove in, I saw the pull-through RV sites. I stopped and Donna walked over to a building marked Activities Office. She asked where we were supposed to check in. Turns out the check-in is at the office in the first place we stopped – the one with the RV Park sign. We were supposed to park alongside the frontage road across from the office to check in. How anyone would know this without any signage is beyond me. Donna phoned the office – they told her to pick out an empty pull-through site, then come to the office to check in.

We picked site 709. Donna walked to the office while I began to set up. The first thing I do is connect our Progressive Industries Electrical Management System (EMS). We had a problem. It didn’t show any power at the pedestal. I phoned Donna – she was at the office by then – and told her we had a problem. The receptionist at the office said we should have power, there wasn’t anything she does to turn it on. I checked a couple other sites and couldn’t get power at any of the pedestals.

About then, a maintenance guy from the park came up on a golf cart. I showed him the blank display on the EMS. A second maintenance guy arrived and said the pedestals were just reworked and should be okay. I went inside and got my Fluke multimeter. I read the AC voltage from the two hot legs to the neutral wire and read 120 volts on each leg. The pedestal was okay. My EMS wasn’t working. This was odd. It worked fine when I disconnected at Fiesta Grande that morning but was DOA when I plugged it in at Fortuna De Oro. This has been a bad week for electrical gremlins. I plugged our 50 amp shore power cable directly to the pedestal and powered up the coach. I don’t like being unprotected against power surges, but all I can do is send the EMS back to Progressive and have it repaired. It comes with a lifetime warranty and they provide excellent customer service.

They’re pretty serious about pickleball here. They have eight courts and some players that play at a high level. Donna and I hit the courts this morning and will do it again tomorrow.

One of the things I wanted to do in Yuma is get the coach washed and waxed. I’ve read on blogs and forums that Yuma is the best place price-wise to have this done. Apparently the competition is fierce and the prices are the best in the country. I made an appointment for a soft water wash, towel dry and hand wax of the entire coach. I’ll also have the wheels shined up.

We plan to pull out of here on Thursday, spend one night boondocking in the desert, then we’ll check in at Mission Bay RV Resort in San Diego on Friday.

Another One Bites the Dust

Our stay here at Fiesta Grande RV Resort has flown by (map). Tonight will be our sixth night of a seven night stay. The weather has been changeable. We went from temperatures in the 90s on Thursday followed by a heavy thunderstorm Thursday afternoon, then a high of only 73 degrees on Friday with a passing shower or two.

I’ve been a pickleball glutton since we arrived. I’ve been on the court for about three hours a day. Donna played most days except on Friday when she went for a bike ride with an avid cyclist named Terry that she met here in the RV park. The shifter cable for the rear derailleur on her bike broke during their ride. I need to find a bike shop and buy a replacement cable.

I managed to get one project done. When we were in Mesa, I searched hardware stores for tie-down anchors without finding what I wanted. I needed to add more anchor points to keep things from shifting in the trailer. Lately, my ladders have been falling onto the scooter and scuffing it up. I don’t know what changed – I use bungees to secure the ladders and that’s worked just fine for two years. Maybe the bungees are worn.

When we arrived here, I ordered tie-down anchors from Amazon and they arrived in two days with my Prime account. So on Friday, I installed the anchors with #10 one-inch self-drilling screws. From now on I’ll strap the ladders to the wall. I ordered eight tie-down anchors and installed four. I’ll keep the rest on hand in case I need additional anchor points.

New tie down anchor installed

New tie down anchor installed

On Wednesday we had another Verizon Jetpack blow-up. The lithium-ion battery pack blew. I wrote about the last blow up in this post. This time the battery bulged and blew the back case cover off the Jetpack like the last one, but the Jetpack continued to work. I’m not sure how that happened. I ordered a new lithium-ion battery from Amazon and it arrived on Friday.

I think the battery issue is caused by overcharging. The thing is, we use the Jetpack all day long. I keep it plugged in because if I don’t have 120-volt AC power to it, the battery will run down in three or four hours. I’m not sure how I can avoid overcharging while running it 24 hours a day. Having the battery charging constantly makes the electrolyte form dendrites which eventually grow to a point of shorting the anode to the cathode. Apparently the Jetpack doesn’t have smart charging capability – it just keeps charging away until the battery fails.

We’ll pull out of Casa Grande on Monday and head down to Yuma for few days before we continue on to San Diego.

 

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to make a purchase, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

New York Bar

Back in May, I wrote about my youngest daughter Shauna graduating from California Western School of Law in this post. After graduation, she moved from San Diego to Washington, DC where she had accepted a position with a large international law firm, Mayer Brown. Shauna works on securities litigation and compliance in their Washington, DC and New York City offices.

In July, she took the New York State Bar exam in Albany, New York. It is arguably one of the toughest bar exams in the country. As you can imagine, the exams are tightly monitored and have security requirements. To enter the exam room, you must show your seating ticket and an official government-issued photo identification such as a passport or driver’s license. They have a list of items that applicants are allowed to bring to the test center. All items must be in one clear, resealable plastic bag.

On the first day of the test, they had a half-hour lunch break. They were told to take their seating ticket and photo ID in their plastic bag for re-admittance to the test center.

Shauna sat with a group of attendees and had lunch outside. When she finished her lunch, she walked over to the trash receptacle and threw away the wrappers from her food. Then she realized she had thrown her plastic bag with her seating ticket and photo ID in the trash!  Normally, you could reach into the trash receptacle and retrieve your bag, but this was a secure trash can that was built more like a postal mail drop box. Once the trash is dropped inside, there’s no reaching in to retrieve it. It had a locked door on the side to empty the trash when it’s full. Shauna was in full panic mode. With no seating ticket and no photo ID, she wouldn’t be admitted back into the test center to continue her exam. Months of preparation for the bar were about to be wiped out.

She saw a police officer and asked him for help. He didn’t have a key for the trash bin, but he said that he could call for the maintenance crew to come and open it. She only had a few minutes of the lunch break left. One of her new-found friends tracked down an exam proctor and told her about the problem. It turned out this particular proctor was the lead supervisor for the crew. She had seen Shauna in the exam center earlier and recognized her. She told Shauna not to worry and to come with her.

This proctor took Shauna to the security desk and told the security people to let her in to the exam – her seating ticket and photo ID would follow once the trash bin was opened up. Shauna was totally on edge as she returned to her seat. You can imagine how tough it was to get her head back into the exam for the rest of the afternoon. At the end of the day, she was exhausted.

After the second day of the bar exam, she told me it was the toughest mental challenge she had ever faced. New York doesn’t set a target for releasing the exam results. Typically the results are revealed in November.

Yesterday, she was still at work in Washington, DC at 8pm when she sent me a text message. She passed the bar exam! Great news! According to an article in The New York Times, approximately 10,600 people took the exam. Only 61% passed. This percentage is skewed lower by the number of foreign-educated examinees. Exam takers who earned their degrees from an accredited school in the USA passed at a 79% rate.

We celebrated Shauna’s success with a cocktail, then cooked Cornish hens on the Traeger wood pellet grill. Donna prepared the hens by rubbing them with oil and seasoning them with salt and pepper. Then she used 6-ounce cans half full of pineapple juice inserted into the cavity to stand the hens up. This is a variation of the beer can chicken grilling method.

Cornish hens ready for the grill

Cornish hens ready for the grill

Donna served the hens with a balsamic tomato conserve, garlic smashed red potatoes and sauteed asparagus with peppers and red onion.

Cornish hen with balsamic tomato conserve

Cornish hen with balsamic tomato conserve

To be honest, I don’t think cooking Cornish hens on the Traeger is worth the effort. A whole chicken or chicken quarters gives much more bang for the buck in my opinion.

Shauna’s not finished with the New York State Bar – she still has to go through a character and fitness review. I don’t see her having any issues with that. She should be sworn in to the bar in January.

We have cooler weather today. I’m posting late because I spent the entire morning on the pickleball courts. Donna played for about two hours before heading back to the coach to take a call. I hung in there for three hours playing doubles with people from Canada staying here for the winter at Fiesta Grande RV Resort.

 

Moving on to Casa Grande

Sunday was a wacky day for sports – at least it was for me. The Moto GP race from Sepang, Malaysia was marred by controversy over the antics of Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi – unfortunately it will affect the outcome of the championship. The Formula One race in Austin, Texas saw points leader Lewis Hamilton force his teammate off track at turn one in a wildly entertaining race with changing weather and track conditions. In NFL action, the Chargers didn’t bring it against the Raiders. They played poorly through three quarters in every phase of the game, then scored three touchdowns in a span of 13 minutes.

I fired up the Weber Q grill Sunday evening. Although I love cooking with the Traeger wood pellet fired grill, I still use the propane Weber from time to time. Donna had prepared a pork tenderloin with a sesame-chili-ginger marinade. It was excellent! She served it with sweet potato mash and sauteed kale.

Grilled pork tenderloin

Grilled pork tenderloin

Served with sweet potato mash and sauteed kale

Served with sweet potato mash and sauteed kale

Sunday night was our last night in Usery Mountain Regional Park. The sunset was a beauty. I think Ozark enjoyed this park as much as any place we’ve been. She spent a lot of time on the dashboard looking out the windshield. Donna calls it cat TV. She was entertained by an endless display of wildlife. She watched the birds – cactus wrens, LeConte’s thrashers, Gambel’s quail. She saw lizards and rabbits and listened intently as the coyotes wailed.

Another desert sunset

Another desert sunset

We packed up and left Usery Mountain on Monday morning. On the way out, Donna stopped at the park office to inquire about camp hosting. We may apply to return to the park as camp hosts. The job would require 40 hours of work per week per couple. In return, we would have a free, full hook-up site. It requires a minimum four-month commitment though. We’ll mull it over and maybe send in the application next spring.

Our next stop was Speedco in Casa Grande. I wanted to have the coach serviced. Speedco is a truck lube and tire service center. They have a medium-duty preventive maintenance service that applies to our RV. I had the motor oil changed (28 quarts), oil filter replaced and chassis lubed. They also checked the gear oil and oil level in the front hubs/bearings. I didn’t have the fuel filter replaced since I changed it in June, but they gave me a fuel filter as it’s included in the package price.

I also paid for used oil analysis. Used oil analysis can reveal trends that may indicate abnormal contaminants which can be a sign of wear or impending failure. When I read the results and compared it to the last analysis, I was puzzled. Some of the properties of the oil seemed unusual. Then I remembered that the last analysis was done on Lucas Magnum diesel engine oil. Since then I’ve switched to Chevron Delo 400 LE diesel engine oil. I’ll never use Lucas again. The analysis of the Lucas oil indicated viscosity breakdown and the Petroleum Quality Institute has issued a warning for that oil.

The Chevron Delo oil has different additives than Lucas uses. The base stocks used in most quality motor oils are similar – it’s the additive packages that are different. For instance, Delo uses a silicon anti-foaming agent. This made the silicon content of the used oil seem high to me in comparison to the last oil analysis. Silicon can also mean dirt has been ingested by the engine. If we had a dirt problem from an intake leak or bad air filter, there would be other telltale signs. Our used oil analysis didn’t show any abnormalities.

The oil was last changed in January, about 10,000 miles ago. One of the things you can see in the used oil analysis is the Total Base Number (TBN). The TBN is an indicator of the oil’s useful life. In our case, the TBN was 7.7. Since Chevron Delo starts out with a TBN of around eight and the oil isn’t considered depleted until TBN is below two, we could have gone a lot longer before changing the oil. I wanted it done now though as we won’t be near a Speedco in the coming months.

We pulled into the Fiesta Grande RV Park around noon. This is a Thousand Trails/Encore park. We aren’t Thousand Trails members but we were able to book a week here at the Passport America rate. We have a full hook-up, pull-through site and full amenities for less than the site we had at Usery Mountain with no sewer.

Road trips wear Ozark out

Road trips wear Ozark out

Last night, Donna made caprese for us to snack on with a beer as I watched the Monday Night Football game. She used fresh mozzarella, compari tomatoes and fresh basil from her potted plant and drizzled it with balsamic vinegar reduction.

Caprese plate

Caprese plate

Today we’ll start with pickleball and then see what the day brings. I expect sunny skies and warm weather – the forecast calls for upper 80s.

Happy Birthday Sara

Although the afternoons have been quite warm, the dew point is low and the dry air is agreeable. Even without clouds, the desert sunsets can be spectacular.

Beautiful sunset from our site at Usery Mountain

Beautiful sunset from our site at Usery Mountain

The evenings cool quickly. On Friday evening, after enjoying happy hour at the Red, White and Brew, Donna and I dined al fresco on grilled boneless chicken thighs at our site at the Usery Mountain Regional Park. It was so nice out, we sat outside until well after 10pm.

Dinner in the open air

Dinner in the open air

In the morning, Donna asked me to scooter her to the Pass Mountain Trailhead.  This seven-and-a-half mile trail has an accumulated elevation gain of nearly 1,200 feet. Most people report taking up to three and a half hours to complete the loop – Donna did it in two hours and fifteen minutes.

While Donna was hiking, I scootered over to the Ace Hardware on Power Road. I was looking for a way to add tie-down points along the walls of the trailer. I didn’t find what I was looking for there, so I went down the road to Home Depot. No luck there either. So I scootered over to the Ace Hardware on Higley, which is a well-stocked store. Strike three. I guess I’ll have to wait until we reach San Diego and order what I want from Amazon.

We wanted to rent a car to go to a celebration at the Beer Research Institute (BRI) on Stapley in south Mesa. Our friend Sara Graff’s birthday is this Tuesday and her husband Howard arranged a get-together on the back patio of BRI. We waited too long to book a rental car. Most of the places had closed at noon on Saturday – the ones that were open didn’t have availability.

Making the 18-mile ride (each way) after dark on the scooter didn’t seem like a good idea, especially since I intended to sample a couple of brews. But Howard and Sara offered to come all the way out to the park to pick us up – Sara said she wanted to meet Ozark. Still, that was really nice. Thanks, Howard and Sara!

Donna was feeling adventurous and had a sample flight with a saison, vanilla porter and coffee porter. I had a West Coast style IPA and a black IPA. The beer was good. We had a plate of appetizers that included pretzel balls with dips, southwest poutine and meat candy – yum. The meat candy is sriracha-coated candied bacon.

Sara's party enjoying the back patio at BRI

Howard and Sara’s party on the back patio at BRI

We ordered entrees as well – Howard generously picked up the tab from the open menu to celebrate his wife’s birthday. I like your style, Howard! Donna had a mac and cheese bowl with green chilies and machaca. (She figured she earned it after her hike!)

Mac and cheese with green chilies and machaca

Mac and cheese with green chilies and machaca

I went for the New Mexico stacked enchiladas plate, which is layers of corn tortilla and shredded chicken with green chilies, cheese and sour cream with a sunnyside up egg on top. We were told we had to try this when we in Albuquerque, but never got around to it.

Stacked enchiladas

Stacked enchiladas

After dinner, it was time to break out the cake and sing happy birthday to Sara.

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Make a wish

Make a wish

We had a great time. Donna used the Lyft app on her phone to call for a ride home. The Lyft driver showed up within minutes and took us right into the park and dropped us off outside our coach. (If you ever want to try Lyft – or Uber – we have free ride codes we can share with you. Just ask.)

I’ve been dealing with a sore lower back for the past few days. I plan to take it easy, watch the Moto GP race from Sepang and some NFL action. Donna has plans to meet up with her friend, Julia, from Fountain Hills.

The Moron Behind Me

While Donna was at the dentist Wednesday morning, I walked over to the Towerpoint pickleball courts. It began to sprinkle rain before I got there. The rain didn’t last, it was just a brief, light shower. It was enough to keep everyone away though – no one showed up to play. I practiced serving for about 20 minutes, then Donna stopped by on the scooter on her way home from the dentist and we rode home.

My day became busier when the dentist offered a 1:50pm opening in the schedule for an exam and cleaning. I took the appointment. I hoped to have the new front tire mounted on the scooter before I went to the dentist, but the tire didn’t arrive at the shop until 1pm.

I went to Steve’s Motorcycle shop after I was finished at the dentist and had the new tire mounted and balanced. By the time I got home from the shop, it was already time for the early dinner at Towerpoint. The power was out at Sun Life RV Resort while the transformer upgrades were being completed. A free dinner was arranged at the neighboring Towerpoint resort to compensate for the loss of power. Both parks are owned by Cal-Am corporation. We enjoyed the dinner and met three other couples we shared a table with. Coincidentally, one of the couples was from our adopted home town of Madison, South Dakota. We’ve met other RVers on the road that use the Madison mail forwarding service (MyDakotaAddress.com), but this was first time we met someone who actually lives there.

Donna and I hit the pickleball courts at 7:30am the next morning. We played several games, then came back to our site at 9:30am to pack up and hit the road. I didn’t have anything loaded in the trailer. We arranged for a late checkout and set our sights on leaving by noon. I managed to get everything packed, take a shower, dump and flush our tanks, pull the slides in, retract the jacks and hook up the trailer in the allotted time.

Our destination was a short drive away – Usery Mountain Regional Park (map). We booked a pull-through site here until Monday. We stayed here last year in site 14, this time we are in site 13. The park has 30 and 50 amp electrical hookups and fresh water, but no sewer hook up at the sites. There’s a dump station near the campground entrance. The views and natural desert landscape are stunning. There are great hiking and mountain biking trails. Road biking is good too – the road outside the park takes you down to the Bush Highway along the Salt River or you can go the opposite way into town.

Back among the saguaros

Back among the saguaros

After setting up, I decided to ride the scooter over to Lucky Lou’s for a last cold one with the guys. Everyone has plans for the weekend and we won’t be getting together again until we return to Mesa in February. On the way there, I had a frightening experience on the scooter.

I was stopped at a red light in the left turn lane on Power Road at the junction with McKellips. I heard a car with a loud exhaust system rev and downshift as it stopped a couple of feet behind me. The driver of a Camaro ZL1 revved the engine a few times, then did a power-brake burnout! Power-braking is where the driver steps on the brake with his left foot and floors the accelerator with his right foot. The front brakes are locked so the car shouldn’t move while the powerful engine overcomes the rear brakes and the tires spin madly and begin to smoke. This was going on two feet behind my scooter at a stop light! When the light turned green, I gassed it hard and heeled the scooter over through the turn like I was riding my old Ducati Superbike. I was glad I had new rubber on the front. The Camaro was squealing the tires through the turn right behind me. I pulled into the parking lot at Lucky Lou’s and the Camaro followed me in. I found a parking space – the Camaro parked next to me. I was mad as can be and had a few choice words for the driver – he said, “I wasn’t going to hit you.” What an irresponsible moron.

The ZL1 has a supercharged 580 horsepower engine and can light up the tires at will. This doesn’t mean it should be driven without regard to the safety of others on a public road. When I was leaving Lucky Lou’s, the guy with the Camaro came out at the same time. He got in his car, then motioned me to go ahead of him. I said, “No chance, I’ll wait here until you are clear of the area.” He lit up the tires again in the parking lot and left.

If you see a Camaro ZL1 with this plate, I advise you to stay away

If you see a Camaro ZL1 convertible with this plate, I advise you to stay away.

I came home to a beautiful sunset and watched the NFL game between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers.

Soft light on Pass Mountain at sunset

Soft light on Pass Mountain at sunset

Lately, Ozark has been amusing herself by picking nuggets of dry food out of her dish and hiding them under the living room rug. Sometimes she burrows under the rug to retrieve them, other times we have to clean up after her.  I don’t know what brought this behavior on.

Ozark looking under the rug

Ozark looking under the rug

Today we expect clear, sunny skies and the temperature should reach the low 80s. Donna has a lunch planned with Lana Jansen. I have a couple of projects to take care of.

 

Power Outage

I haven’t posted for a couple of days as things have been fairly quiet around here. On Monday morning, we expected a scheduled power outage as the park is upgrading transformers. The power was supposed to be out at 6am and remain out for four to six hours. To compensate, a free breakfast was scheduled at the sister resort, Towerpoint, next door (map). Donna and I walked over to Towerpoint at 7:30am. The breakfast was great – I had a full plate of eggs, bacon, potatoes and a biscuit with sausage gravy! That’s way more than I usually eat, but you know how breakfast buffets are.

After breakfast, we walked over to the Towerpoint Sports Complex. We brought our pickleball gear and met a few players on the court. We played five or six games and had a good time. When we came home, we found the power was on at 9:30am. Later, a park employee came by and delivered a flyer saying the transformer work was delayed and the scheduled outage would occur Tuesday morning, followed by another outage Wednesday afternoon.

Donna serving on the Towerpoint pickleball court

Donna serving on the Towerpoint pickleball court

On Tuesday morning, we went back to Towerpoint and played pickleball again. We love this game. I also went to their office to see if they had any availability for us to return here in mid-February. They couldn’t find a site for us – January, February and March are the busiest months for RV parks in the Phoenix area. Later, the woman at the Towerpoint office phoned me and said she found two sites that should be suitable for us and advised me to come back and look at the sites. I reserved site J27 from February 15th through April 15th. This should work out fine for us – our tax accountant is here in Mesa and we can get that handled while we’re here.

When we were in Albuquerque, Donna noticed the left reverse light was out on our coach. I didn’t bother with it while we were there due to all of the balloon activity filling my days. I also didn’t bother with any diagnostic work. Since the right reverse light worked, I ruled out any possibility of a problem with the signal reaching the lights. The tail light and turn signal worked so I didn’t think I had a ground problem either. I went to NAPA Auto Parts and bought new bulbs. The 3156 bulbs came in packages of two. Since the reverse lights and the turn signal lights use the same bulb, I bought two packs so I would have bulbs on hand for all four positions.

I removed the left rear light assembly and took the bulb socket out of the bulb holder by twisting it 90 degrees. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the bulb and the filament appeared to be intact. I broke out my Fluke multimeter and checked continuity through the bulb. I read 50 mega ohms of resistance (50,000,000 ohms)! The new bulb showed 0.9 ohms of resistance. Apparently there was an internal problem with the bulb that wasn’t visible to the naked eye and that’s why it wasn’t working.

Looks can be deceiving

Looks can be deceiving

Later that afternoon, I stopped in at Lucky Lou’s and met up with the usual crowd – Leendert Hartoog, John Huff, Mike and Jodi Hall and Pat Fitzpatrick – for a cold one. I came home and our friends and former neighbors, Joel Myaer and Lana Jansen, picked us up and drove us to Alessia’s Ristorante Italiano on the corner of Higley and Brown for dinner. The food was outstanding. I had the strangola over capellini and Donna had pesce puttanesca. Donna and Lana split a bottle of Sangiovese while Joel and I enjoyed Birra Moretti (Italian lager). It was a beautiful evening and we had the entire outdoor patio to ourselves!

Joel, Lana and Donna at Alessia's

Joel, Lana and Donna at Alessia’s

We’ve had some wet weather since we arrived here in Mesa. Thunderstorms have passed through daily with sudden wind gusts and rain. Most of the severe weather has passed by to the west and north of our location. The forecast calls for drier weather ahead.

Donna had an early dental appointment at 7am this morning. I’ll go to the dentist for a check-up and cleaning this afternoon. The power will be out again this afternoon and the park has a free early dinner scheduled. I’ll start packing the trailer this afternoon. We’ll pull out of here tomorrow and head up to Usery Regional Park where we have a site reserved through Monday. We love that place – the hiking, biking and views are so nice there.