Category Archives: Arizona

I Got a Feeling

Sometimes I’ll overthink a subject before I act on it. Other times, I go with my gut and either jump in or walk away. This week I had a couple of examples of this. When we were in Fredonia, Arizona at the Wheel Inn RV Park, the owner raved about the quality of the tap water. He said it naturally filtered through sandstone and came from a spring.

After tasting it, I had to agree. It was good water. We have a fresh water tank capacity of 100 gallons. I figured I should drain the tank and refill it with this water. The basement compartment on the driver’s side has a handle that you pull/push to open/close the drain valve of the tank.

Pull/push handle and cable to operate tank valve

A couple of days later at the Distant Drums RV Park, I noticed water slowly dripping under the coach. A drop came out every ten seconds or so. It was coming from the fresh water drain. I tried opening and closing the valve quickly a few times, but it continued to drip.

When we arrived here at Pleasant Harbor RV Resort, we had lost more than a quarter of the tank of fresh water. I crawled under the coach to investigate and also checked the cable for binds. Usually I’ll do what it takes to make a repair like this, not because I enjoy it – I’ll do it to avoid paying someone else to do the work.

Looking at how the valve was situated, my gut told me, “Not this time.” I could see accessing the valve would mean laying on my back in the basement compartment with my nose inches from the tank and extending my arms in a narrow gap to reach the valve to remove and replace it. Add to that the fact that close quarters meant I would be working inches away from my face – I don’t see as well as I once did. I’m blind in one eye and the other doesn’t see up close very well. So, I walked away from the project and started making phone calls for mobile RV service.

AJ Abner from InsideOut RV Service came out and took a look. He had to order parts and came back yesterday. He said it should only take him a short time to change out the valve. Two hours, later he threw in the towel. He had replaced the valve and tried three sets of seals and it still dripped. He said his arms felt like jello from working in the compartment for so long. He figured the valve and seals used on the tank were a mis-match to the drain hub. He ordered more parts and said he would call me for another appointment. I’m glad I decided against tackling this job!

Over the last couple of weeks, I’d been thinking about adding another ham radio to my kit. I wanted to get a handheld transceiver (HT) for VHF/UHF frequencies. My Yaesu 991A covers VHF/UHF but I mostly use it for High Frequency (HF) shortwave reception and transmission. If I’m on HF and I want to check for activity on local VHF/UHF repeaters, I have to switch away from HF.

If I had a small HT I could monitor the repeaters for activity while working HF on my big radio and switch it over only when I knew there was traffic I was interested in. I did some research and narrowed my choices down to two radios based on internet specs and reviews. Before I pulled the trigger, I wanted to actually try each radio to compare them.

So, on Tuesday, I drove down to Ham Radio Outlet in south Peoria. They had the Yaesu FT60 and the Yaesu FT70 in stock – these were the radios I was interested in. They were priced within $20 of each other. What it boiled down to is this – the FT60 is a no frills workhorse with a track record of reliability, but it only works on analog signals, no digital – it’s been in production since 2004, which is an eternity in this category.

The FT70 has both analog and digital capabilities and would be more useful as more and more repeaters go digital. It would also allow me to access a Yaesu digital service called Fusion which links repeaters worldwide. I was leaning toward this radio as it would allow me to learn Fusion technology and not be obsolete for years to come – and it was only $20 more than the FT60.

Then Ron, the store manager, showed me the FT3D. Oh boy! This is a magical miniature beast of a radio. It’s Yaesu’s flagship handheld and full of features. What really sets it apart is the fact that it’s two receivers in one case. It has an “A” and a “B” receiver. You can listen to two frequencies at once and they can be VHF or UHF, which ham operators can transmit on, plus it can receive aircraft, emergency stations, weather stations and commercial FM. It can be set to automatically switch between analog and digital depending on the signal it’s receiving. It’s like having a FT60 and a FT70 in one package!

The price was commensurate – it costs about the same as buying both the FT60 and the FT70. It changed my view of HT radios – I went for it.

I also went for an antenna upgrade, quick charging station, bluetooth ear piece and additional programming software. My wallet was about $500 lighter by the time I left the store.

Most ham operators seem to start with cheap handheld transceivers, then either lose interest or move up to HF when they upgrade their license and equipment. I went about it the other way around. I earned my General license from the start and bought quality equipment. When I decided to go with a HT, I went the quality route again. I figured if I bought the FT60, I would soon wish I had digital capability. Then if I followed it with a FT70, I would have spent just as much or more than what I spent with the FT3D. That’s my rationale.

I’m loving this radio and over the past few days I have learned much about digital radio and System Fusion. This learning applies directly to my other radio as well – I hadn’t learned much about this before because I usually work the HF 20-meter and 40-meter bands on my 991A and things like System Fusion don’t apply there.

With the FT3D, I can access a Fusion repeater located on South Mountain. That’s a direct line-of-sight distance of 37 miles. Most cheap handhelds are lucky to hit a repeater 10 miles away. Through the Fusion linking system, I have talked to people all over the country as well as New Zealand and France. With the digital Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOiP), the clarity is amazing. But, I still find more satisfaction making a long distance contact over the air antenna-to-antenna without relying on anything but electromagnetic waves and no other technology. Enough radio talk.

We made our weekly grocery run on Wednesday. The closest grocery store is Albertson’s near the Junction of I-17 and Carefree Highway (AZ74) – about 10 miles from the RV park. We stocked up for the week ahead. We found a couple of treats. Donna made pan-seared salmon with wild-caught Alaska sockeye on Wednesday evening.

Alaska sockeye topped with sauteed ginger and scallions

It was very tasty with a topping of sauteed chopped ginger and scallions.

Last night, she manned the grill and cooked New York strip steaks. It was delightful. She served it with sauteed mushrooms, baked sweet potato fries and southern fried cabbage with bacon.

Today we are looking forward to new neighbors. Our friends Mike and Jodi Hall are coming to the park for the weekend with their travel trailer. Their granddaughter Swayzie and her friend will be with them.

The weather forecast calls for a cooler weekend with temperatures in the mid-80s. The weather guessers say there’s a 30% chance of rain on Monday and the thermometer won’t reach 70 degrees. This is hard to imagine after weeks of 100+ or temperatures in the high 90s. I’ll believe it when I see it.

*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!

Kayak, Wind and Fire

Most afternoons, I set up my ham radio in the shade on a small table and see who’s talking. On Thursday afternoon, I was doing just that when I picked up a mobile transmission from a guy traveling west on AZ74 (Carefree Highway) and heard him talking about a fire near Crown King. I got in on his conversation to ask for more detail as Crown King isn’t too far from Lake Pleasant – it’s about 40 miles north.

I walked to the front of our site and sure enough, the sky to the northwest was full of smoke. Where I was sitting in the shade by the trailer, I couldn’t see it. I thanked the guy for the info and shot a couple of photos

Smoke over the lake coming from the northwest

The smoke was heavy and continued to the southeast toward Glendale and Phoenix.

Currently, the fire encompasses about 10,000 acres and is burning six miles northwest of Crown King – about 18 miles south of Prescott. The area is sparsely populated and about 100 people had to evacuate Friday morning. The Forest Service says there’s a lot of valuable equipment at the top of Crown King – I’m guessing communication and television transmission gear. They’re calling it the Horse Fire. This has certainly been the summer of fire in west.

High winds kicked up unexpectedly Thursday night and into Friday morning. I’m sure this hampered firefighting efforts. Donna had signed up for a guided kayak tour from the Lake Pleasant Regional Park. It was a ranger-led event called Pleasant Paddlers. Donna wasn’t about to let the wind deter her. I had loaded the Sea Eagle kayak in the Midget the night before and drove Donna to the regional park. The north park entrance is about seven miles from Pleasant Harbor RV Resort.

We set up the kayak in the lot above the Castle Creek boat ramp and lugged it down to the water. There were eight participants including two rangers. They set off a few minutes before 9am.

Heading out from the bottom of the boat ramp

The water near the ramp is in a protected cove and was calm. That wasn’t the case once they hit open water on the lake though.

Choppy water on the lake – smoke from the Horse Fire to the north

They came across a herd of 26 wild burros in a cove.

At another cove, they stopped for lunch and saw more burros.

Lunch break – wild burros on the hill in the background

After lunch, the winds died down and they had a nice paddle back. The tour lasted nearly four hours and they covered 5.9 miles! Donna’s feeling it today.

Today I tackled a project on my “to do” list. Our Dometic 320 RV toilet has had an intermittent leak. A few drops of water come out by the foot-operated flush valve from time to time. Earlier, I checked the manual for the toilet to see what parts are involved with the flush valve and found an interesting note in the manual. The note addressed two common complaints.

The first note regarded the toilet bowl not holding water. It said the first thing to do was to shut off the water supply, then hold the toilet bowl drain valve open with your foot. With a gloved hand they recommended using your finger to push the seal and seat it.

We had this problem a few weeks ago, so I did the recommended procedure and found a build up of minerals deposited under the seal. With my finger I was able to push the deposits away from the seal and it worked – the toilet held water again.

The second part of the note addressed water dripping from the water supply valve at the foot-operated lever. It showed how the water valve is a cartridge-type set-up with a piston that opens the valve to allow water to flow into the toilet when you step on the foot lever.

I found a replacement cartridge at Dyersonline.com. Dyers carries many lines of genuine Dometic replacement parts. I’d ordered awning parts from them in the past. They have a warehouse in Anthem – only a few miles away from Pleasant Harbor. I called them and was told no in-person sales at the warehouse were permitted due to covid-19 restrictions. I had to pay for FedEx delivery. Oh well, at least I got the part.

At first I thought I would have to remove the entire toilet to access the cartridge, but after looking it over and seeing how it was fastened, I went for it with the toilet in place.

The cartridge has two plastic springs that catch in slots on the housing. This loosely holds the cartridge in place, then two screws anchor it to the housing. The cartridge kit included new screws and a hose clamp for the hose running from the valve into the toilet.

The first thing I had to do was to release the water supply line from the elbow at the cartridge water inlet. I used pex tubing when I installed the toilet and used Shark Bite fittings. These are clever arrangements. The Shark Bite uses a horseshoe-shaped device that fits over the tubing for disassembly. Pushing the device against the fitting while pulling on the tube releases it. Ingenious! To reassemble, you simply push the pex tubing back into the Shark Bite fitting and it locks in place with a water-tight seal.

While I was removing the old cartridge, I think I uncovered the root of the problem. The toilet had been assembled at the factory with only one screw holding the cartridge in place. With only one corner of the cartridge firmly screwed down, it was relying on the spring clips to hold it. I think this may have allowed the cartridge to cock slightly when pressure was applied to the foot lever as it contacted the piston. This, in turn, put a side thrust force on the piston which may have cocked it in its bore and broke the seal at times.

I reassembled it with two screws – one on the upper left and one on the lower right as designed. Job done! It seems Dometic knows the failure modes of their toilets!

Yesterday, Donna whipped up her mojo marinade before we set off for her kayaking adventure. When I returned from dropping her off, I put the now cooled marinade into a sealed bag with a pork tenderloin. Last night, Donna grilled it and served it with sweet potato French fries and asparagus. Another nutritious, delicious meal and we’ll be enjoying leftover mojo pork tacos for lunch!

Mojo marinade pork tenderloin with asparagus and sweet potato fries

The hot weather continues with daily highs in the upper 90s. The forecast calls for another week of the same before we cool off to a more normal high in the low to mid 80s.

RV Park Antennas

I ended my last post by briefly mentioning ham radio antennas. Today I’m going to write more on the subject, so if you don’t have any interest in ham radio, just skip down to the dinner plates!

Ham radio operators in the USA currently can be licensed in three levels. First is the Technician License which allows access to the Very High Frequency Band (VHF) and the Ultra High Frequency Band (UHF) with very limited access to High Frequency (HF) on six meters and 10 meters. Frequency and band nomenclature can be confusing for non-ham operators. Frequency is a measure of signal modulation in cycles per second known as Hertz. A band refers to a range of related frequencies and is broadly referred to by its wavelength in approximate meters. Here’s the thing – the higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength. So, the 2-meter band is a higher frequency band than the 20-meter band.

Then there’s the General License which opens up a lot more opportunities on HF bands that are useful for long-distance contacts. The top level is called Amateur Extra and requires in-depth technical knowledge of radio theory and operation.

When I began assembling my ham gear, I hadn’t taken my exam yet. I was supremely confident of passing the Technician exam and assumed I would be operating with a Technician License. I ordered a Comet GP6 antenna to receive and transmit on VHF/UHF – 2-meter and 70cm bands. This has proven to be a good choice – compact, easy to set up and take down, rugged and efficient. I also bought a dual band Diamond CP610 antenna. This is an enlarged version of a vertical like the Comet and will receive and transmit on the 6-meter and 10-meter bands. This was not the best choice as it wasn’t very stable at 22 feet long.

When I took my exam, I easily passed the Technician exam. Then they offered me a chance to take the General exam at no charge – I did and passed. This meant I needed another antenna for HF bands 10-meter and lower.

As full-time RVers, I have limitations on what antennas I can reasonably use. As I’ve studied and learned, it’s apparent that all antenna designs are compromises in one way or another. I needed an HF antenna that was portable, could easily be stored in the trailer, set up easily and not require a lot of real estate. Stability was important too – it would be bad to have my antenna fall over and hit someone’s RV.

I ended up buying an MFJ-2289 Big Ear antenna. This is a V-shaped dipole antenna with 17-foot long collapsible whips and a coil to tune to 10- through 40-meter bands. This antenna is aptly named – it has big ears and I could hear stations from long distances. On three occasions, when conditions were favorable, I was able to talk to a guy in Spain once and twice to a guy in Slovenia. However, most of time I could hear distant conversations, but they couldn’t hear me or my signal was broken and noisy. I usually operate on 20 meters in the afternoon and switch to 40 meters later in the day.

After doing more research, I found the V-dipole acts like a horizontal dipole. For maximum long distance efficiency, it needs to be mounted high above ground level – for 40 meters it would ideally be mounted at least 60 feet high. I can’t put up a 60-foot tower!

I’m also a little skeptical of the quality and durability of the materials MFJ uses. The long whips seem a little flimsy and are really pushed around by wind.

After doing more homework, I came up with a few ideas. One day, I was talking on the radio with a guy in northern California named Budd Drummond (W3FF). It turns out that Budd is the inventor of the Buddipole modular antenna system. He didn’t try to sell me on it – he just threw out a few ideas and suggested I check out the website and maybe contact his son, Chris Drummond who’s the owner and CEO of Buddipole. Budd is retired, although he still consults with Chris.

Buddipole has some standard packages and configurations, but many ham operators consider Buddipole to be the erector set of antennas. You can mix and match parts to make what you desire. I had a conversation with Chris and outlined my limitations and what I would like to be able to do with ham radio. We came up with a design that would meet my criteria – of course, compromises are always made with antennas. The design is based on what Buddipole calls a Versatee Vertical. I call mine a Frankenbuddi.

Buddipole uses high – quality materials. The collapsible shock-cord whip sections are made of anodized 7075 aluminum. They offer a system beginning with a stable, high-quality tripod and a collapsible mast. The Buddipole components screw directly into the end of the mast. This put the base of my vertical antenna about 10 1/2 feet above ground level and I have about 21 feet of vertical whip. It also has a tuning coil, so I can tune the antenna from 10 meters to 40 meters. It utilizes a wire counterpoise ground that I run from the antenna base feedpoint sloping to a point about three feet above the ground.

With all this stuff, I knew I needed instruments to properly set up the antenna. I bought a RigExpert antenna analyzer. With this meter, I’m able to set this up and accurately tune it. The whip does bend a bit in the wind. I’ve added a couple of guy lines to help support it although it never budged with three one-gallon water bottles suspended from the tripod.

Buddipole – white whip in background is the Comet antenna

I’m happy with the results so far. I’ve talked to people all over the US from the northeast to Florida to the midwest and western states. I listened to a conversation in Japanese that presumably originated in Japan – it was as clear as if they were in the same room with me. I also picked up a weak signal from Germany. Long distance to Europe or Japan or Australia is very much influenced by propagation conditions in the upper atmosphere – a good antenna helps immensely, but if conditions are bad, signals are bad.

Another ham operator here at Pleasant Harbor RV Resort really pushes the antenna boundaries. He has at least five antennas up in his site. See if you can spot them in the photo below.

Here they’re identified. The loop antenna is misleading in this photo – it’s much larger than it appears.

The beam antenna is actually an over-the-air HDTV antenna

The whole idea of electro-magnetic waves constantly around us is fascinating to me. In fact, light is created by super-high frequency waves! Any conductor can be tuned to receive specific frequencies – it’s just a matter of amplifying the received signal and processing it to hear what it contains.

I’m the antenna

Catching vibration

You’re the transmitter

Give information

– Kraftwerk

The Buddipole came with a coaxial cable. It was another compromise. Buddipole leans toward highly mobile, lightweight equipment. The cable they supplied was RG58u and although it’s light and easily packed, it also creates high loss. I wanted to use my RG8U which has a much larger conductor – it’s stiff and heavy by comparison, but it’s also low loss. So on Saturday, Donna and I drove to Ham Radio Outlet in Peoria. I had forgotten how much metro Phoenix sprawls – it took us about 50 minutes to reach the store. I bought an adapter for my cable so I could hook up the low loss RG8U to the Buddipole TRSB. Checking both configurations with the RigExpert antenna analyzer, I can honestly say it was worth the trip. The RG8U coaxial cable is far superior in performance to the RG58u.

Time to talk food. Donna manned the Weber Q to cook a simple favorite – sriracha chicken thighs. She used boneless thighs this time and they were great. She says she’ll stick to boneless for this dish.

Last night, she prepared a meal we had both mostly forgotten about. In fact, we think we last had this when we were still living in our sticks-and-bricks home, so it’s been at least seven and half years.

It was very good. I don’t know why this dish was forgotten.

Our daily highs have dropped about ten degrees from what we experienced last week. We’re still running air conditioning, but not as early or as long. Donna’s been taking advantage of the swimming pool. You have to reserve a time slot which varies from two to four hours – they only allow 50 people at a time in each time slot and you can only reserve one time slot per day.

The long range forecast calls for low 80s the last week of this month. We’ve made a change to our itinerary. We’ll leave Lake Pleasant on the 30th and move to Buckeye where we’ll be able to more easily visit Jamie and Francisco.

Wild Burros

Donna registered for a guided kayak tour from Lake Pleasant Regional Park – she’ll take her kayak out on the lake next Friday with a park ranger leading a group of up to 10 people. Lake Pleasant Regional Park is operated by Maricopa County Parks and Recreation. The park is an area of about 23,000 acres – 7,500 to 10,000 acres are covered by the lake. Lake Pleasant is a pleasing name, but it may not be what you think. It’s named after the Carl Pleasant dam which was completed in 1927 and formed the lake from inflow of the Agua Fria River.

There are fees associated with entry to the park. Donna decided to purchase an annual Regional Park Pass – she’ll use it here and also when we are in Mesa to enter Usery Regional Park. So we drove the Midget west on Carefree Highway to North Castle Hot Springs Road and the entrance to the park. Once Donna paid for the pass, we drove in and took a look around.

Our first stop was at the Scorpion Bay Marina parking area. From the parking lot, you get a great view of the lake and marina. It’s a bit of a hike to get down to the marina, but they also have two inclined lifts that can hold about four people or a couple of people and gear to get down and up from the marina.

Scorpion Bay Marina – stairs between two inclined lift tracks

I was surprised at the number of large boats in the marina. The building at the end of the dock is Scorpion Bay Grill – Donna and I plan to eat there in the near future.

As we were leaving the parking area, we saw wild burros.

I pulled off of the pavement and Donna shot a couple of photos.

They didn’t want to hang around while Donna photographed them

Donna wanted to check out some of the hiking trails, so we took a car tour of the park. Between Sunset Ridge and the Bobcat Day Use area, we found a huge boat ramp. The sign says 10-lane boat ramp, but it looks larger than 10 lanes to me. It’s also a long, fairly steep run from the parking area to the water.

We’ve had nocturnal visits from wild burros at least three times this week. Yesterday, I saw one of the park maintenance guys scooping donkey droppings and I figured out why they are coming into the RV park. We have a grassy park with a pavilion between the RV sites and the clubhouse/pool area. The burros are feeding on the green grass at night when no one is around.

Last night, Donna prepared a new dish – it was called melted broccoli pasta and she served it with shrimp grilled on the Weber Q.

I had a really interesting contact on ham radio Wednesday evening. I could hear a conversation between two people with a strong signals on both ends. I was operating on the 40-meter band, which is useful for long-range contacts of 300 miles up to 5,000+ miles. After listening for a few minutes, I found that one end of the conversation was coming from Henderson, Nevada. The other guy was in Peoria, Arizona – less than 10 miles away from me! This doesn’t usually work on 40 meters – the signal skips over near locations as it reflects off of the ionosphere.

I was able to join the conversation, then the Henderson contact had to break away and we were joined by a guy in Del Mar, California. It was a fun contact and I enjoyed the conversation. Today I’m expecting a delivery – I’m going to replace my MFJ 2289 high frequency antenna with something new. When I bought my radio gear, I really tried to learn about which radio would be the right choice for me and I think I did well. But, I should have paid more attention to antenna theory and design. A lot of the old-timers have advised to spend money on the antenna – that’s where the performance is. Well, live and learn – I should have spent the antenna money once – instead I keep replacing them with the next best thing as I learn.

Today should be the first day we have a high temperature in double digits. It’s been 100+ degrees every afternoon since we arrived. Today’s forecast calls for a high of 91 degrees and we should see low to mid-90s for the next couple of weeks. We joke about dry heat, but really at 10 to 20% humidity, 90 degrees doesn’t feel too bad.

When I’m 64

Unexpected noise woke Donna and me last night. I’m not sure what time it was, but I think it was well after midnight. It wasn’t a party or barking dogs – it was braying and clacking hoofs as a small herd of wild burros came through Lake Pleasant Harbor RV Resort!

Wild burros are fairly abundant and controversial in this area. They aren’t a native animal and are probably more correctly called feral burros – they are descendants of livestock brought here by Spanish explorers in the 1500s. I mentioned controversy – here are links to information on a study of the Lake Pleasant Herd Management Area by the Bureau of Land Management Hassayampa Field Office and an article by the US Small Business Association.

Glassy water at Pleasant Harbor Marina this morning

Donna came across a burro when she was out hiking on Saturday morning. He kept an eye on her as he grazed on a bluff overlooking the lake. We always give wild animals their space anytime we encounter them.

I set up my ham radio Saturday afternoon. I made a few contacts on the 40-meter High Frequency band, but it was a contest weekend. Some ham operators are into contesting. Contesting involves logging your contacts during the contest period and earning points according to how the contest rules are written. Last weekend was the California QSO Party contest. Operators in California earned points of varying amounts depending on the location of the station they contacted. I played along and answered seven calls, but I quickly become bored with contests. The participants just want to know the minimum information – i.e. callsign, name, location – and then move on to the next station.

I switched to UHF/VHF repeaters and found a Winsystem repeater where people held conversations. I heard a lot of talk in central California about the wildfires. Smoke continues to be an issue with poor air quality. I heard the air index near Yosemite was over 600! People on the central coast said an offshore flow brought smoke from fires in the mountains to the coastal communities. It doesn’t sound good.

My middle daughter, Jamie, paid us a visit Saturday night along with Francisco and two of the kids, Trey and Parker. We sat outside and talked for a couple of hours – it was the highlight of the weekend. We haven’t seen Jamie and her family since the start of the covid madness.

Last night, Donna grilled bacon-wrapped filet mignon. These were the last two filets we bought in the northwest – they came from Willamette Valley and were excellent cuts of meat. Donna served them my favorite way – smothered in sauteed mushrooms and onions.

There’s a bacon wrapped filet mignon under those mushrooms and onions.

Today is the last day I can claim to be 63 years old. Tomorrow marks my 64th birthday – it’s somewhat of a milestone for people in my generation due to the Beatles song “When I’m 64.” Paul McCartney wrote this song when he was 16 years old. It wasn’t recorded until late 1966 with George Martin adding three clarinets to the instrumentation and was released in 1967 on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Donna’s been practicing this song on her clarinet for about a year, so I’m sure I’ll get to hear it tomorrow.

Will you still feed me

Will you still need me

When I’m 64?

We haven’t had any issues with smoke from wildfires here in central Arizona, but it’s been hot. The daily highs continue to hover around 105 – 106 degrees and it only drops to the low 70s overnight. Last night it was still 90 degrees outside at 9pm. The long range forecast calls for cooler temperatures by the weekend – we’re ready for that.

Two Short Moves

I checked our route before we left Twin Arrows Casino and found two Walmart stores in Flagstaff. The closer store was a supercenter on Huntington Drive, but looking at the satellite view, the lot looked like it would be tough going in a big rig. The second store wasn’t a supercenter, but it had an easy way in and out. We’re 65 feet long and I like to know what I’m getting into before I commit to it.

The second store had a Basha’s grocery across the lot. We stopped there and I went into Walmart for water and beer while Donna went over to Basha’s for some groceries. I also bought a sandwich from Subway along with a Subway salad for Donna.

It was only about a 75-mile drive to Distant Drums RV Resort, so we had plenty of time. There wasn’t any point at trying to check in before noon. We arrived closer to 1pm and were checked after a short wait while four coaches ahead of us checked in. We had a long, paved pull-through site and didn’t need to drop the trailer. This is a nice RV park with a small swimming pool and hot tub.

Donna took a hike on the trail across the road from the park. We hiked this trail over six years ago when we stayed here. It doesn’t seem possible that six years have gone by since then, but this blog post proves it.

View of Cliff Castle Casino from 1 1/2 miles up the trail

Wednesday I had a guy from Gary’s Mobile RV Wash come and wash our coach. It needed it and he did a great job – he even polished the wheels to a nice shine.

Thursday morning we pulled out around 10:30am. Again, we were in no hurry as we only had about 70 miles to our next destination – Lake Pleasant Harbor RV Resort on the west side of Phoenix on the Carefree Highway (AZ74). The interstate is close to the Distant Drums entrance and we took I-17 south. Within a few miles, the road climbs out of the Verde Valley. It’s a steep grade for about five miles. At one point, we came up on a slow moving truck. The problem was, there were only two lanes of travel and cars were in the left lane overtaking us at 70-80 mph while we had a truck going 30 mph in front of us.

I had no choice but to slow down. Usually, once you give up the momentum behind a slow truck on a steep grade, there’s no regaining speed. I got lucky this time. I could see clear road behind me and with the transmission in 3rd gear I was able to accelerate and gain speed. I shifted to fourth gear and got up to 50 mph and blew past the truck without holding up traffic or risking a rear-end collision.

We stopped at the Pilot/Flying J Travel Center in Cordes Lake and topped up with about 60 gallons of fuel. We’ll be stationary for a month at Lake Pleasant and I like to have the fuel tank as full as possible when we’re parked for extended periods. This minimizes the air space in the tank and minimizes condensation. Of course, in Arizona, it’s not much of a problem as the air is so dry, but it’s my habit and I mostly stick to it.

They had a Subway shop at the center, so Donna bought another salad and a sandwich for me. It was still early, so we waited until we stopped at the rest area at Sunset Point to eat lunch. We took a shortcut on New River Road to Lake Pleasant Harbor. In hindsight, I should’ve stayed on I-17 to the Carefree Highway because New River Road had rough sections and some construction – besides, it wasn’t much of a shortcut.

Due to Covid precautions, the office wasn’t open – well, it was but you couldn’t enter. I had to call the front desk where they put together a packet for me then a woman came out of the office and handed me our paperwork.

We set up in site 207 which is shown as a 61-foot back-in site. It was a little tricky, but by angling the trailer i was able to cheat our 65-foot length into the site.

Yesterday, we drove up to Anthem to pick up our mail at the post office. We had to have our mail forwarded to General Delivery because this park won’t accept mail for guests unless you book for a minimum of three months. We can receive UPS or FedEx deliveries, but it has to be left at the office. They don’t want deliveries at the sites. Weird rules.

This morning, one of the park maintenance guys stopped by and told me I couldn’t have our coach past the fence line – the sites are bordered by chain link fences. This was irritating – I wasn’t in the street or blocking anyone’s access. The chain link fence line is only 54 feet long – this is supposed to be a 61-foot site.

A neighbor from across the street – who also happens to be a ham operator – came by to give me a hand. We moved the picnic table from the rear of the site and I positioned the trailer at a more severe angle putting us about seven feet deeper into the site and lining up the front of the coach even with the end of the fence.

Speaking of ham operators, after I set up my radio yesterday, a guy named Doug stopped by. He saw my antennas and told me he was a ham. I looked at his site this morning and he has quite the set-up, including a large loop antenna and a vertical that must be 40-feet high. He also has a dipole stretched across his site. The guy that helped me reposition this morning, Roger, is friends with Doug. So, we have at least three ham operators here in the park.

So far, the Arizona weather has refused to let go of summer. The highs have been 105-106 degrees and triple digits are forecast into the middle of next week before we drop into the mid to low 90s. But it’s a dry heat and there isn’t a cloud in the sky.

Dry and Dusty

As I mentioned in my last post, we drove up to Kanab, Utah on Thursday and met Jeff and Deb Spencer at Escobar’s Mexican restaurant for lunch. After a short wait, we were seated at an outdoor table on the front patio. We enjoyed the food, company and conversation for the next two hours. Kanab is only about eight miles from Fredonia where we were staying.

On the way back, we made a side trip to look at the Kane County arena where a rodeo was scheduled on Friday evening. It looked dry and dusty – the parking area was a dust bowl. I decided to pass on the rodeo.

Donna went out for a bike ride on Friday and in her travels, she ran into Deb Spencer. Jeff and Deb are mooch-docking at a friend’s place in Fredonia. Donna stopped and talked to Deb and her friend, Marge.

Dry and dusty has been a theme at Wheel Inn RV Park in Fredonia. On Saturday while Donna took a bike ride, the wind kicked up. I ended up taking down my ham radio antenna and it turned out to be a good precaution as the wind became gustier all afternoon. At times, the amount of dust in the air was astounding. It was a good thing Donna went out early for her ride. She followed a route suggested by Marge and went across the state line to the Jackson Flat Reservoir. Here are some photos from her ride.

I was feeling a little off all weekend – some kind of intestinal bug. So I wasn’t very active.

On Sunday, Donna had an appointment at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab. She drove Midget-San up there before noon. They have a number of tours for a variety of animals – dogs, cats, pigs, goats, birds and rabbits. Donna toured Cat World where rescued cats are housed.

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary Welcome Center

I hung out and watched the Moto GP race from Spain and the Formula One race from Russia. When Donna returned, I loaded the Midget in the trailer and I was glad I did. Once again the wind kicked up and we had several dust storms – so much dust I couldn’t see across the street.

Monday morning we hit the road. We took US89A south and began climbing. In Fredonia we were about 4,800 feet above sea level. Our route on US89A took us past Jacob Lake where we topped out at 7,920 feet above sea level! The highway is twisty and very narrow. I clenched a few times when oncoming tractor-trailer rigs threatened to knock mirrors with us. There is no shoulder at all and dropping a wheel off the pavement probably would not end well.

We quickly lost elevation as we drove past Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. We crossed the Colorado River at Marble Canyon at an elevation of a little over 3,500 feet above sea level and began climbing again. We soon left US89A and hit US89 south. This is a wider road with ample shoulder space and is a divided highway at times. But, it’s a very bumpy road with whoop-de-do sections. After traversing several miles of rough pavement, I groaned when I saw a sign warning of rough pavement for the next 24 miles. If the next 24 miles warranted a sign, things could only be getting worse.

US89 took us up the Mogollon Rim south of Cameron and the road to the east entrance of the Grand Canyon. We entered the Coconino National Forest and were back up to an elevation over 7,000 feet above sea level. Most people think of Arizona as flat desert land. Not so in northern Arizona. We went from arid canyons to thick pine forests with a multitude of landscapes in between.

From Flagstaff, you can see Humphreys Peak – the highest natural point in Arizona at 12,637 feet above sea level. We drove past Flagstaff and made a detour east on I-40 to Winona where we found the Twin Arrows Casino. The casino is closed due to the pandemic, but it has large lots and RVers are welcome to dry camp. We spent last night here and are off to Camp Verde today where we’ll spend the next couple of nights at the Distant Drums RV Resort. We’ve been there before and it’s a nice RV park with amenities.

The temperature is much cooler here, but it’ll be warmer in Camp Verde and warmer still in Lake Pleasant where we’ll check in at the marina on Thursday.

Cedar Breaks

We took another sightseeing excursion from Iron Springs RV Park on Tuesday. We drove into Cedar City on highway 56 and went south on Main Street to UT14. This highway began climbing almost immediately and was mostly uphill for 21 miles. We entered the largest National Forest in Utah – the Dixie National Forest.

As we drove through the forest, Donna commented on the aroma of the evergreens. There were Englemann spruce trees, pines and firs. There were also quaking aspen stands – many of their leaves were starting to turn yellow. The deciduous trees along the creek bottoms were showing vivid fall colors already. We hit the summit of UT14 at 9,910 feet above sea level. The air temperature was much cooler at that elevation.

We turned north on highway 148 and continued to climb another 400-500 feet as we entered the Cedar Breaks National Monument. It occurred to me then – I hadn’t seen a single cedar tree around Cedar City, nor did I see any in the Dixie National Forest and the Cedar Breaks National Monument. What was up with that?

At one of the information kiosks at a scenic overlook, I learned that early settlers in the area mis-identified the ubiquitous juniper trees found here as cedars. So, Cedar City and Cedar Breaks National Monument are named based on mis-identification.

Cedar Breaks is called a natural amphitheater, but it looked like a rugged canyon to me. The drive through Cedar Breaks National Monument is 7.5 miles long and has four scenic overlooks. We entered and my America the Beautiful Senior Pass got us in for free. We drove to the north end of the monument, then turned around and made stops at each of the overlooks. The overlooks have a parking area and a short paved path to the viewing area. I shot a lot of photos – here are some of the sights.

Donna at an overlook – check out the elevation

The colors of the rock are due to layers of shale, sandstone and limestone exposed by erosion. Cedar Breaks is on the west side of the Markagunt Plateau – the same plateau as Zion to the south.

On the way out, we needed a comfort break before making the drive back. We parked at the information center near the entrance and walked to the gift shop thinking we would find restrooms there. We didn’t – they told us we had to go to the other end of the lot and we would find a building with restrooms there. We did. Then we decided to walk back past the gift shop to the Point Supreme Overlook. The time it took us to detour to the restrooms and back to the overlook cost us.

As we got back to Midget-San, a few rain drops fell. There wasn’t any rain in the forecast, but in the mountains, weather can change in an instant. As we drove out of the park, it started to rain harder. I could see blue sky just ahead and figured we should just push on – stopping to put the top up would take just as long as driving out of the rain. I soon regretted this decision as hail started falling. The hail stones mostly bounced off the windshield or flew overhead as we drove, but a few got us. I was hit on the nose and ear and it stung! Donna took a few to her cheek. We were out of it after a few minutes and the car quickly dried. Before we got out of the showers, we saw a few motorcyclists on the side of the road donning rain gear. Little did they know they would be out if it just a few curves down the road.

The rest of the trip back was uneventful. In the afternoon, I secured everything in the trailer and loaded the Midget. We hit the road again Wednesday morning but we weren’t in a hurry. We were only going about 100 miles to Fredonia, Arizona. I made a stop at the Sinclair station to top up the fuel tank before we hit I-15 south. We took about 60 gallons of diesel fuel at $2.31/gallon.

Our route left I-15 and headed southeast on UT17 through Toquerville, La Verkin and Hurricane. Out of Hurricane, we made a steep climb on UT59. We followed this road to the state line where we made a stop at Subway for lunch. I hadn’t given any thought to the time change, but since we crossed into Arizona, we gained an hour.

Arizona time is equivalent to Mountain Standard Time year-round – they don’t observe Daylight Saving Time. So, in the summer months, Arizona time is the same as Pacific Daylight Time and in the winter it is Mountain Standard Time. This can be confusing at times.

We took our time eating lunch. There was no sense in arriving at Wheel Inn RV Park in Fredonia before noon. We ended up driving into the park around 12:15pm. The office was closed, so I phoned the number on the door. The park owner told me to pick an open pull-through site and text the site number to him once we were in.

The pull-through sites are long with lots of space to enter and exit – the park is basically a dirt lot. It’s level, but the sites are narrow. It’s laid out in such a way to allow an island between adjoining sites to have a shared water spigot and hook-ups. The sites alternate facing east or west. The downside to this is neighboring doors face each other and the picnic table areas are shared space. We set up and will spend five nights here before moving down around Flagstaff.

Before we left Cedar City, Donna found fresh tilapia from Ecuador at the Smith’s grocery there. She made an old favorite that we haven’t had in a while – tortilla-crusted tilapia.

We’re in for more hot, dry weather. The forecast calls for daily highs around 90 degrees. We’re still at an elevation of about 4,800 feet above sea level, but the elevation isn’t making it any cooler here.

Today we plan to drive up to Kanab, Utah and meet our friends, Jeff and Deb Spencer (Rolling Recess) for lunch. We haven’t seen them since spring. Our paths have crossed several times over the years and it’s always fun to meet up with them.

Ham and Eggs

Back on June 2nd, Donna and I made a trip over US160 to Durango, Colorado – about 50 miles from Cortez. The purpose of the trip was a stop at the Wells Fargo bank branch there – the only one within 150 miles of Cortez. Why make such a long drive to the bank? The purpose was to draw a couple of cashier’s checks to make the final distribution of the trust funds left by my step-dad, Ken Keller.

I had already taken care of all of his bills and filed his personal income taxes and a trust tax return. There wasn’t anything else left to do but make the distribution, close the trust account and dissolve the trust. Sounds simple enough, right?

I sent cashier’s checks via USPS Priority Mail to my sister in Florida and brother in California that afternoon. My brother sent me a text saying he received the check on the 5th. On the following Tuesday, the 9th, I tracked the mail to my sister. Tracking showed an exception alert on June 5th – the mail had to be forwarded. I didn’t know when I sent the check that my sister had moved from her apartment.

I kept trying to track the envelope, but no new information was showing. Finally, on the 17th, I opened a ticket online with USPS and spoke to a customer service representative. This person told me mot to worry, it takes time for forwarding and it was “in process.” I asked her where in the process it was. She couldn’t answer – she said it would have to go to Tallahassee, be tagged and re-sorted to its final destination in Jacksonville. I told her more than 10 business days had passed with no update. She again said it was “in process.”

I started getting e-mail tracking info on the 21st due to my online service request. It said the envelope was at the sorting facility at Gainesville, Florida. What? Then on the 22nd it said it was “in transit.” The next update said it left Jacksonville. Then it was “in transit” on the 23rd, 24th and 25th. Next it was shown as at the facility in Ybor City, Florida. What! That’s across the state from Jacksonville. I made a second online complaint and call with no satisfactory answer of what happened to the check. On the 27th, tracking said it arrived in Jacksonville, then on the same day, it said it departed Jacksonville today and than again arrived in Jacksonville.

Anyway, by Friday, the 26th I gave up on the USPS finding and delivering the check. I made an appointment and drove back to Durango. I needed to stop payment on the original cashier’s check and draw a new check. This was complicated by the fact I had closed the Wells Fargo account. After an hour of filling out forms, I had to pay a fee of $199.34 to issue the new check. This was for fraud insurance. The only way to avoid this was to wait for 90 days and the check would be voided and I could get a new one for $31.00. I paid the fee and got a new check, then stopped at FedEx to send it. No Priority Mail this time!

On Saturday morning, Donna and I drove up US491 north to County Road 15 – our destination was the Dolores Canyon Overlook. A gal we met at pickleball, Jan, told us about the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) field day. This is an event where ham radio operators set up portable equipment in the field to communicate. It’s the most popular annual ham radio event in the US and Canada – more than 35,000 ham radio enthusiasts participate.

Members of the local club, which includes Jan’s husband, Mike, set up at the Dolores Canyon Overlook. This is a remote location – more remote than I anticipated. Little did I know that when we left US491 and hit CR15, we would drive 15 miles of dirt and gravel road to reach the overlook. At one point, a few miles from the overlook we rounded a corner and saw two bears – a momma and a large cub. They ran away from us. There was a small pond nearby and I think they were there for water when we startled them.

I wanted to make the trip so I could learn more about ham radio operation. It’s a hobby I’ve had an interest in. Mike and another club member, Cap, filled me in with a lot of information about equipment and how I could set up in the motorhome. Mike told me about a trip he and his wife took with their teardrop trailer into remote northwest Canada. They were more than 100 miles from the nearest cell tower but were able to stay in touch with their family via ham radio.

Donna and Jan outside of the ham radio campers – check out the antennas

The Dolores Canyon is a deep gorge with the Dolores River running through it. From the campground area there’s a trail about a quarter of mile long to the overlook. The views are spectacular.

The overlook is on a narrow ridge. We walked a few yards away from the canyon and faced the flatland to the west. We could see the small town of Dove Creek.

Looking west – you can make out Dove Creek in the center

I’ve decided I want to join the ranks of amateur radio operators. I’m studying to take the exam for a technician license. I can take the exam in Everett, Washington on July 25th when we are there. A man needs a hobby and I haven’t taken up anything new in a while.

Saturday afternoon we had another interesting visit. We went to the Owers’ farm. We met Bob and Carolyn Ower at the Cortez Farmers’ Market where we bought beef from them. Bob told us about his hydroponic cattle feed system and invited us to check it out.

Bob and Carolyn raise angus cattle on their farm. They used to breed and raise the cattle themselves. They started with good stock from Montrose, Colorado. Raising your own stock is a lot of work. You constantly have logistical challenges of separating bulls from cows and tending pregnant cows and dealing with calves. They’ve changed their operation now to buying young steers from Montrose and raising them for 18 months. They start with genetically sound cattle and by providing proper nutrition they produce quality beef.

The cows eat grass in the field and their diet is supplemented with hay for roughage and barley for dense nutrition. They sprout the barley in a hydroponic system that’s capable of producing 250 lbs. of barley per day. It takes six days to go from seed to feed with this system.

Seeds in front bins germinating – barley sprouts in the rear

Trays on the bottom left will be ready for feed the next day

My photo of the nearly finished product is a bit off – I think I had an issue with the UV lights. The hydroponic trays do not contain any dirt or mulch. The nutrients for the seedlings is in the water and the barley roots mat together making the tray of barley into a single unit much like sod (without any dirt). The cattle happily munch the entire mat of barley.

We went out to the back field where the cattle were. Bob brought some treats – actually they were horse treats that I think were made from apples – and the cows moved out the shade of a tree across the field to come to us for treats.

They have seven steers currently and some are about ready for processing. The largest of them is about 1,100 lbs and Bob said they gain about three pounds per day. They have five more young steers coming on Tuesday.

We also toured Carolyn’s garden and greenhouse. She grows vegetables which they sell at the farmers’ market.

Bob told me the greenhouse grows vegetables year ’round – even in the cold of winter. Carolyn also raises chickens for eggs as well as a few fryers. Different breeds of chicken produce different colored eggs. The color of the egg doesn’t affect the flavor – they all taste like eggs. Farm fresh eggs do seem a little creamier and richer though.

Looks like Easter, but these are naturally colored eggs

We really enjoyed our tour of a working farm. Bob and Carolyn also happen to be licensed ham radio operators and are members of the same club with Mike and Cap. Bob is thinking about writing a book about his approach to raising cattle and sustainable small-farm operations. Donna gave him a few tips and ideas.

After our dusty road trip, I went over Midget-San with a California duster last night. This morning I got serious and gave it a good cleaning with Meguiar’s Ultimate Waterless Wash and Wax. Looking good now.

After I had a couple of lunches of pulled pork sandwiches, Donna came up with a dish for the remaining leftover pulled pork. She made piggy mac which is baked macaroni and cheese with pulled pork! It was tasty and Donna thought it tasted like comfort food from a good food truck!

I’ll start organizing the trailer this afternoon. Tomorrow, after pickleball in the morning, I’ll get us 80% ready to roll. Tuesday we’ll head out and go up US491 into Utah where we’ll take US191 north to I-70 and head back east to Fruita, Colorado for a couple of days. We don’t expect any weather issues and by Tuesday it’s supposed to be cooler than the 90 degree heat we’ve been having – Tuesday’s high is forecast as 78 degrees.

Galloping Goose

It was too windy on Tuesday to play pickleball. We’ve had warm, dry weather and gusty winds – a bad circumstance for fire danger. Two fires have been burning since lightning strikes ignited them last Saturday. On Sunday, I saw a small helicopter flying overhead. It was apparently being used to fight the fires. The smaller fire was northeast of Dolores and we could see and smell smoke from that fire when we played pickleball on Monday. This fire is called the Loading Pen Fire and appears to be contained.

The other fire is between Mancos and Durango and it’s called the East Canyon Fire. On Tuesday, I saw a large Chinook helicopter outfitted to carry water or fire suppressant flying directly over us at La Mesa RV Park in Cortez, Colorado. Presumably it was heading to the Cortez airport for refueling. I don’t understand why the powers that be used a small helicopter initially and only brought out the big unit when the fire grew to 1,100 acres and people had to evacuate. I understand it’s less costly to operate the smaller helicopter, but if it’s not able to contain the fire and then you have to bring out the big aircraft, what have you saved? The big Chinook flew over about an hour ago, so it’s still in service fighting the fire.

Donna and I did our weekly grocery run at Safeway on Tuesday. Safeway has the better meat selections – they have meat cutters onsite – while the City Market seems to have better produce. We bought a couple of very nice looking beef filet mignon steaks to grill. I also bought a lean top round cut for London broil to use for jerky. I’m still tweaking my jerky recipe and it’s really good! I prepped the jerky and had it marinating in the refrigerator Tuesday afternoon. While we were going through the produce section of the store, I saw a variety of fruit that cracked me up – they looked like the animations I’ve seen of the Wuhan coronavirus. It’s called kiwano, sometimes referred to as horned melon.

I mentioned in my last post about the rough night Ozark the cat had over the weekend. I’m happy to report she’s recovering with no sign of infection and not limping. I’m not sure if her nails will regenerate normally – time will tell.

Ozark the cat resting and recovering with Donna

We played pickleball Wednesday morning, hitting the courts at 8am and played for two hours. When we came home, I started smoking the jerky on the Traeger smoker/grill. I pulled the jerky from the smoker at 2pm. After cleaning up, we drove up to Dolores – a little over 10 miles northeast of here. We wanted to check out the train museum and the farmers’ market they have from 4pm to 7pm on Wednesdays.

The train museum turned out to be closed due to the pandemic. I shot a photo of the Galloping Goose in front of the museum. The Galloping Goose is one of seven railcars made by the Rio Grande Southern Railroad (RGS) in the 1930s. Six of them are still around. These railcars were originally designed to haul mail. The RGS was financially strapped at the time and it was too costly to run steam engines to haul mail. So they developed what they called “motors” from modified automobiles – Buick and Pierce Arrow.

The motor in Dolores is Galloping Goose number five. It was re-bodied with a Wayne bus body in 1945 and the power unit upgraded to a war surplus GMC engine. In 1950, RGS lost the mail contract – it was more efficient to use road carriers by then. RGS modified four of the motors by cutting windows in the compartment and installing seating and put them into service as tourist rides – this is when the Galloping Goose name was added to the railcars. Goose number five was restored in 1998 and runs occasionally on the Cumbres and Toltec Line (we saw a steam engine on that line in New Mexico – pics here) and on the Durango and Silverton tourist line.

We left the museum and walked along Central Avenue. Dolores is an old western town in a narrow gulch along the Dolores River. The town was established in 1900 and was serviced by the Rio Grande Southern Railroad. There are only three or four east-west roads in the town which is about one and a half miles long and only a quarter of mile wide (north-south).

Typical building on Central Ave, Dolores

The farmers’ market was next to the museum in Flanders Park behind City Hall. It was small but we enjoyed walking through and picking out a few items – mostly farm fresh produce and also some homemade salsa.

Fresh produce at Dolores farmers’ market

After we returned from the trip to Dolores, I grilled the filet mignon we bought at Safeway on the Weber Q. I had already cleaned the grill grates on the Weber with the pumice bricks I mentioned in my last post.

Donna made baked potatoes and steamed fresh broccoli from the farmers’ market. Farm fresh broccoli is head and shoulders above the broccoli we typically find at the supermarkets. She also sauteed mushrooms and onions to go with the filets.

Our plans are coming together for us to make our way up to the northwest when we leave here at the end of the month. We plan to visit my oldest daughter’s family in western Washington – by the way, yesterday was Alana’s birthday. I must be really getting old – my daughter turned 40 years old!

There’s no sign of rain in the long-range forecast. The temperatures should reach the mid-80s through the weekend, then we’ll see daily highs in the 90s next week.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Arizona

I Got a Feeling

Kayak, Wind and Fire

RV Park Antennas

Wild Burros

When I’m 64

Two Short Moves

Dry and Dusty

Cedar Breaks

Ham and Eggs

Galloping Goose

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