Category Archives: Beer

Last Weekend

Last weekend was our last weekend here in San Diego – for this trip. We had a great time driving up to Carson with Gary and Brian. Gary has season tickets for the Chargers and we went to the penultimate game of the regular season. Traffic through San Diego’s North County was heavier than expected, but once we got past Oceanside, we moved along without much slowing.

We arrived at Stub Hub Center a little past 2pm – time for some tailgate action.

Donna and her new friend at Thunder Alley

Tailgating at Stub Hub is a blast. There’s a section called Thunder Alley where people set up bars and of course there are dueling stereo systems. Everyone is grilling something. Gary really went to town on the grill and cooked a chateaubriand that was out of this world. This is the most tender cut of beef and the flavor was wonderful. I wish I had a picture of it.

We got to our seats just in time for the kickoff. The seats were only five rows up from the field in the corner of the end zone – close to the action!

Seats close to the action

We had a fun time although the Chargers didn’t prevail. Donna volunteered for designated driver duty on the way home. She drove us to Gary’s house in Clairemont and we took an Uber ride home from there.

Donna took care of her sister’s dog Sunday afternoon, Monday and Tuesday. She made two trips each day to Sheila’s place to walk, water and feed her dog, Bandit. On Christmas morning, it was raining here. Donna took an Uber ride up to La Jolla to avoid riding the Spyder in the rain. She had a nice walk with Bandit up there though.

View to the north from Hillside Drive in La Jolla – the cliffs at Torrey Pines and Black’s Beach are in the background

Tuesday was Christmas Day and lucky for us, the rain moved out around 1:30pm – just in time for us to join our neighbors Larry and Brenda along with Brenda’s son, Mike. We met Larry and Brenda here a few years ago. They’re from Louisiana and we really enjoy visiting with them. They invited us to join them for Christmas dinner.

Larry cooked a turkey in a deep fat fryer.

Turkey submerged in 300 degree boiling vegetable oil

We had several side dishes and Donna made a stuffing that featured chestnuts. The meal and company were excellent. I had a Belgian Trappist ale with dinner – Chimay Grande Reserve.

Belgian Trappist ale
Christmas dinner spread

Donna made baked pears with cinnamon and chopped walnuts served ala mode for dessert.

We sat and chatted until 6:30pm or so – the time flew by.

After pickleball at the Ocean Beach recreation center on Wednesday, I had to get busy. I’ve been putting off the installation of new tie-down rings in the trailer. Two of the old ones pulled out and I needed to make the repair to secure the Spyder in the trailer. I found what I needed at Ace Hardware in Pacific Beach and got it done Wednesday afternoon. Donna packed away the Christmas decorations. She stores them deep in the center of the basement compartment since she only needs to access them once a year.

Last night, Donna made chicken Gabriella for dinner and served it with roasted Brussel sprouts and brown rice. After dinner, I was puffing on a cigar outside when a police helicopter flew over Grand Avenue. I could clearly hear an announcement over the public address system – they were searching for suspect dressed in a black sweater and black pants.

Chicken Gabriella

Tomorrow we’ll pull out of here. I’m looking forward to a couple of quiet nights in the desert after three months of city life. Then we’ll check in at Viewpoint in Mesa, Arizona for another dose of life in the city.

PEX Project

Winter seemed to arrive in San Diego last week. Monday and Tuesday we had clear skies and the temperature reached the mid-70s. Wednesday’s high was about 10 degrees cooler and the rain that was clobbering the Pacific Northwest slid down the coast and arrived here early Thursday morning. About an inch of rain fell over the next 24 hours. The high temperatures over the weekend only hit the low 60s. Last night, the thermometer dipped under 50 degrees for the first time since we’ve been here – it was 49 degrees. I know for most of the country this weather is nothing to complain about, but it feels chilly to us.

Luckily we had Sini’s car last week while she and Bill were vacationing in Costa Rica. We used the car to go to pickleball on a rainy Thursday. On Thursday evening Donna said she thought the bathroom floor was damp around the toilet. I investigated and found a small drip coming from the mechanism inside the rear of the toilet. Our toilet was a Thetford Aria II Deluxe electrically operated model. This toilet uses electric solenoids to control the water flow to the bowl. The water flows through an impeller that turns in one direction when the left solenoid opens which then turns a worm gear that jacks the blade valve open in the bottom of the bowl. Then the left solenoid closes and the right one opens, reversing the water flow through the impeller housing to close the valve. Water was seeping from the impeller housing.

I checked the housing screws for tightness and they were tight. It was getting late so the only thing I could do was shut off our fresh water supply and deal with it Friday morning. I searched online and found a kit to replace the mechanism and valve – it cost $125. I was leery about installing a new mechanism in a 15-year old toilet. I was afraid that once I started disassembling it, some of the old, brittle plastic parts might break. There are a lot of parts in this model and I also wasn’t all that happy with its performance. The Thetford toilet is noisy – the worm gear makes a loud grinding noise as the jack screw opens and closes the valve. A lot of people complain about the loud operation of this model. It’s also voltage sensitive – when we boondock, if our battery voltage drops below 12.5-volts, the operation of the valve is iffy.

We decided to go out and look for a replacement. First stop was at La Mesa RV in Kearny Mesa. They had a couple of Dometic porcelain bowl toilets but their prices were high and the model we were interested was bone colored, not white. So we went up to San Marcos to the Camping World store. We bought a Dometic 320 porcelain toilet with a foot pedal operated manual valve. My project for the afternoon was to change out the toilets – so I thought.

Removing the old toilet was easy but I didn’t understand why it was mounted with wood screws through the floor. Looking at the mounting flange, I saw there were actually two flanges stacked together. I remembered when we bought the coach, one of items I had on my list of things for the dealer to correct was the seal for the toilet. Apparently their guy just screwed a flange on top of the original one and mounted the toilet with wood screws. The stack of two flanges was too tall for the new toilet. I removed the top flange and found the flange underneath had been glued with PVC cement to the pipe for the black tank. Even worse, it was glued on in the wrong position – the slots for the correct flange mount studs were cocked about 45 degrees from where they should have been – thus the wood screw mounting method.

Fixing this would entail cutting the pipe to the black tank and installing a new length of pipe and flange. I wasn’t equipped for such a project, so I went forward with the wood screw method. I hate doing things this way – it’s totally amateur.

With the new toilet in place, I had to connect the water supply line. I installed a 1/2″ FNPT fitting to the inlet on the foot-operated valve that had a 1/2″ PEX fitting for the water line. This fitting didn’t come with the toilet, I had to make a run to Ace Hardware in Pacific Beach for it. I re-used a 90-degree elbow from the old line and kept the PEX tubing that was attached to it. Once I started to assemble the line, I realized that I should have bought a different PEX to NPT fitting for the valve. Another trip to Pacific Beach. The fitting I bought is called SharkBite. These things are amazing. You can push the PEX tubing into the fitting and it locks in place. No collar, seal or collet needed. The brass fittings are reusable. A special tool – it’s just a plastic horseshoe-shaped device – releases the PEX tubing from the SharkBite fitting. When you push the PEX tube in place, it locks and has a watertight seal. You cannot pull the tube out. Once you push the release tool in place, the PEX tubing slides right out of the fitting.

First NPT to PEX fitting – I replaced it with a 90-degree fitting

I cut the PEX tubing to length and started putting things together. The SharkBite makes it so easy – it’s like building something with a Lego set – just push things together. When I had it done, I turned on the fresh water pump and saw the NPT fitting was leaking. I quickly shut off the pump and then I realized the big mistake I had made. Putting the PEX line together was so easy, I didn’t give a thought to taking it back apart. To get the NPT fitting off to reseal it, I  needed to remove the PEX line. I cut the tubing between the fittings so short, I didn’t allow room to put the removal tool in place to release the SharkBite fittings. By this time, I had been working on what should have been a simple project for hours – between messing with the screwy flange set-up and trips to Ace, I was worn out. I reluctantly told Donna we would have to go another night without water and I would deal with it in the morning. Luckily our site is next to the restroom here at Mission Bay RV Resort.

With a fresh approach Saturday morning, I was able to cut the PEX tubing with a cutter I had bought at Ace and with a little elbow grease and an extra hand from Donna, I got the old PEX out of the SharkBite fittings. Looking at it with a fresh perspective, I realized I didn’t need the old 90-degree elbow I had used. PEX is flexible enough to make up the slight misalignment between the valve and the existing supply line. I just needed to find about a foot-long section of PEX tubing. Home Depot about five miles from here had 1/2″ PEX in five-foot sections. Between the traffic and the zoo that is Home Depot on a Saturday morning, it took me about an hour to get back in business.

Simple supply line set-up

After cutting a section to the length I needed, I had it done in about 10 minutes. I turned on the water pump again. Success! The new toilet flushes noiselessly – it’s nearly silent in operation. We had become so accustomed to the noise from the old one, we could hardly believe how quiet the new one is. So, my quick toilet replacement turned out to be a full day’s work instead of an hour or so, but now it’s job done.

Dometic 320 – job done!

Donna took Sini’s car to pick up Sini and Bill at the airport in the afternoon and they dropped her off on their way home. For dinner that night, she made something new – roasted chicken thighs with fennel and lemon. She served it with cauliflower risotto and steamed spinach. It was a simple and delicious meal and she made enough for leftovers tonight.

Dinner

On Sunday morning, Donna was up early. She had volunteered to hand out finisher medals for a Girls on the Run 5K race. She ran over to the start/finish line in Crown Point (about two miles from here) and then ran back afterward. She’s been volunteering for this organization for a few years now. Last year, she and Sini were course marshalls for the run and Donna also did several hours of data entry.

I forgot to mention that Donna and I decided to ride over to Deft Brewing Saturday for happy hour. It’s a new small brewery with a nice selection of very tasty European style craft beers. We returned to Mission Bay just in time to catch a gorgeous sunset.

De Anza Cove sunset

The forecast calls for highs in the mid 60s and we might have rain again on Wednesday.

Our Friendsgiving

We’re more than halfway through Thanksgiving weekend as I type this on Saturday afternoon. This was the first year since we hit the road that we didn’t have family members to share Thanksgiving with. But, we weren’t lonely. Our friends, Jeff and Deb Spencer, made the drive down from Dana Point where they are camp hosting at Doheny State Park. It rained early on Thursday morning but the sun came out and it was dry after 9am.

Donna grilled turkey breasts and a drumstick and thigh on the Weber Q. Deb brought down a salad plus asparagus and cherry tomatoes for roasting. Donna sauteed some corn with peppers and onions and made mashed Yukon gold potatoes and turkey gravy for Jeff and I  – the mashed potatoes and gravy didn’t fit the Bright Line Eating Plan that both Donna and Deb are following.

Grilled turkey

Round one

Deb and Jeff arrived around 2pm and we soon had the outdoor picnic table set. I poured a Belgian golden ale to go with my turkey. In lieu of pies for dessert, Donna baked Bartlett pears with cinnamon and chopped walnuts, then served it with a drizzle of balsamic reduction sauce and blueberries with a dollop of Greek yogurt. Deb said it was as good as apple pie!

Belgian golden ale

We dined and talked for a few hours. Before sunset, we made a quick lap around the RV park to stretch our legs and have a look around. The park is nearly full – but not quite as full as it was over the last couple of years. We actually have an empty site next to us which is a pleasant surprise. Deb and Jeff hit the road for the drive back up north after sunset.

Jeff, Deb, Donna and me after sunset

My friend Gary Stemple sent me a text saying he was visiting people over in site 71 and invited us to stop by. We went over and sat outside by their fire pit and talked for a while and made plans to get together on Friday.  Then Donna and I came back home to watch the end of the football game while I puffed a cigar.

Gary came over Friday at noon with a power boat that he beached outside of the park in De Anza Cove. We weren’t sure how many people were planning to go out on the boat – Gary, Donna and I planned to take a boat ride over to Paradise Point and have lunch at the Barefoot Bar. We thought others would be joining for a cruise after lunch.

Looking north from the boat as we cruised across the bay

Lunch at the Barefoot Bar started with Bloody Marys for all three of us. They make a great Bloody Mary and garnish it with wedges of lemon, lime, olives, celery and bacon!

Bloody Mary with bacon – because everything is better with bacon

I ordered the muffaletta sandwich and Donna had a salad with seared ahi tuna while Gary went for a bowl of clam chowder. The food was good although the service could’ve been better with a more attentive waitress. One thing I saw on the menu bugged me.

Hidden charge in the small print

If you click on the photo above to enlarge it, you’ll see a surcharge notice. It says they support increased minimum wage and other mandates – so they add 3% to the bill to cover them. In other words, they hide the additional costs of these government mandates with a surcharge – that way they can say we haven’t raised our prices on the menu – but you’ll pay more.

At the Barefoot Bar, they have a small lagoon that has water from the bay pumped through it. There are a variety of fish in the lagoon including small sharks. They had fish scraps brought out from the kitchen and fed the sharks while we were there.

Feeding the sharks

It turned out that everyone else bailed on the boat ride, so Gary dropped us off back at De Anza Cove and left. Thanks for the boat ride, Gary!

I mentioned the park is nearly full. As usual, many families and small groups came to the RV park for a long Thanksgiving weekend. People have been fairly well-behaved and although the kids run wild until about 8:30pm and parties in some sites are a bit noisy, it mostly settled down by 10pm. I hope that holds true tonight as the weekenders have their final night here. Tomorrow there will be a mass exodus as the park empties. I almost expect to hear a whooshing sound as everyone pulls out.

Monday we’ll have to leave. We’re restricted to a maximum stay of 62 days here before we have to leave for 24 hours. We’ll pull out Monday morning and head down to the Elks Lodge in Chula Vista for the night. Then we’ll be back to site 112 for another month-long stay. The forecast looks great for next several days with highs near 70 and mostly clear skies.

 

Three Early Mornings

We finally had a change in the weather pattern here in San Diego. Since we arrived in late September the humidity levels have been much higher than usual and the days have been partly to mostly cloudy with low clouds in the late afternoon obscuring the sunset. We were lucky on the night of the SpaceX launch as it was one of the few cloudless skies.

Last weekend, the humidity levels dropped to a more normal level – ranging from 25% to 40% relative humidity. Clouds have been higher or non-existent since then. It made for a nice sunset last Saturday.

Sunset on the bay last Saturday

On Tuesday morning, the alarm clock was pinging at 5am. We had to be up early so I could drive Donna to the airport. She flew to Vermont to spend some time with her parents and also have a girls’ weekend with friends from her college days. We have Sini’s car – Sini generously left it with us while she’s up in the northwest.

Donna left just as another weather condition arrived – Santa Ana winds. Santa Ana winds occur in southern California when high pressure develops inland over the desert areas. This creates an airflow over the coastal mountains with strong wind gusts and dry air mass. The wind flows offshore and often makes great surfing conditions. Our daytime highs have been in the low 80s with clear skies and overnight lows in the upper 50s. It’s a few degrees cooler at night with clear skies.

I’ve spent most of my week playing pickleball and handling domestic chores. I’ve just about emptied the refrigerator of leftovers and I still have over a week before Donna returns. Of course I have a cold one at happy hour with the guys. Yesterday I had a Belgian ale at Dan Diego’s called Duvel  – it’s one of my favorites. I think I first tried this beer when we were in Amsterdam – it’s popular in The Netherlands along with another beer I’ve never seen in the states called Jupiler.

Duvel ale

Tomorrow I’ll be up early. My buddy from high school, Gary Stemple, invited me to join him on a fishing trip. We’ll take a fishing boat from the Freedom Boat Club location on Shelter Island and head out from San Diego Bay. We plan to hit 9-mile Bank and hopefully find some tunas – bonita, yellowtail, skipjack and, if we’re lucky, yellow fin.

9-mile Bank is like a mountain under the ocean. It’s about 11 miles from the mouth of San Diego Bay on a southwesterly heading. The bank itself is approximately 10 miles long and the water depth is a little over 300 feet. Today I’ll head over to Dana Landing and buy a California one-day sport fishing license and also a one-day Mexican fishing license. The California license costs $15.69 and the Mexican license will be $20. You can get the Mexican license for less money if you buy in advance online. I didn’t do that because I wanted to wait until the day before to be sure the trip wasn’t going to cancel for weather or any other reason. We’ll be straddling the California-Mexico border.

I’ll be up early again on Sunday. The Chargers are playing the Tennessee Titans in London, so the game will air at 6:30am PDT.

SpaceX

I was sitting outside watching the Sunday Night Football game and puffing a cigar when a guy walking by alerted me to an unusual sight in the clear, dark sky above. It was a rocket streaking by west of us, heading southwest. I called for Donna to step outside – we watched as its glowing trail sped away leaving a “V” shaped wake in the sky. It abruptly disappeared when it escaped the earth’s atmosphere. It was the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching a SACOM-1A Radar Imaging Satellite. The first stage had already separated by the time we saw it – I wish I could’ve witnessed that.

Other than that, we haven’t been up to anything too exciting. I play pickleball on Mondays and Wednesdays in Ocean Beach and Tuesdays and Thursdays in Pacific Beach. Donna joins me about 50% of the time. The weather has been pleasant – low 70s in the afternoons and cooling by about 10 degrees overnight. We’ve had more cloudy days than I expected though. September and October are usually fairly dry and offer up great beach weather. We haven’t had that so much this year. The humidity remains higher than usual with partly sunny and breezy afternoons. We can’t complain though – there’s been plenty of rough weather in the other parts of the country.

On Monday night, Donna grilled wild Coho salmon with ginger scallion topping and served it with grilled shishito peppers and baby bok choy. It was a great combination.

Grilled salmon, shishito peppers and bok choy

Monday and Thursday I meet up with the guys for a cold one at Dan Diego’s. On Tuesday and Friday we hit happy hour at Offshore Tavern and Grill. Tuesdays are Taco Tuesday at Offshore and it’s a treat. They have oversized tacos with your choice of steak, chicken or carnitas for $3. If you want fish or shrimp, it’s a dollar more.

Wednesday night Donna made walnut crusted tilapia which she served with green beans and acorn squash with sage and nutmeg.

Walnut crusted tilapia with green beans and acorn squash

Donna is still following the Bright Line Eating Plan, so she has to meet certain requirements on portions and proportions of protein, fat and carbohydrates. It hasn’t affected me too much – I think I’m getting more vegetables and fiber than I usually eat though.

Before this turns into a food blog, I’ll mention one minor project this week. One of the door catches on the laundry room – that’s what we call the utility closet housing our Splendide combo washer/dryer – broke. There’s an Ace Hardware in Pacific Beach that’s an old-time full service hardware store. They had the replacement part I needed and it was an easy repair.

Tomorrow Donna plans to spend the day with her 13-year old nephew Connor while her sister is away at a wedding in Los Angeles. She’ll be gone from morning until late at night. I don’t have a plan at this point. I’ll have to get used to it – on Tuesday, Donna is flying back to Vermont to spend some time with her parents and visit with friends she hasn’t seen in a long time. She has a girls’ weekend planned in Wilmington, Vermont with two college pals who met 38 years ago when they were on a foreign exchange program in England. And there’s also a reunion planned with a group of people she worked with at one of her first jobs. I’ll be on my own for two weeks. I better get another quick lesson on how to operate the Splendide washer/dryer!

 

Rocky Mountain High

Wednesday night was our second and last night at Mountain View RV Resort outside of Cañon City. Donna prepared a Moroccan chicken kabob dinner she served over grilled veggies and rice (brown for me, cauliflower rice for Donna). We really like Mountain View – the park is well-maintained, clean and quiet and set in a beautiful location. And the owners are super nice.

Chicken kabob

Thursday morning as we prepared to leave I looked at the low clouds obscuring the nearby mountain top with some trepidation.

Low clouds

Our route across the Colorado Rockies would take us west on US50 over Monarch Summit at an elevation of 11,312 feet above sea level. I was concerned that we might encounter low visibility and there’s always the chance of sudden thunderstorms with heavy rainfall and high winds. We left a little after 10am to get over the pass by noon – the thunderstorms usually form in the afternoon. We started out at an elevation of a little over 6,000 feet above sea level, but quickly dropped into the Arkansas River gorge about 1,000 feet lower.

The scenery was breathtaking as we climbed. The last four miles to the summit are a relentless 7% grade. Driving big rigs at altitude can be difficult. Steep climbs at high elevation hit you with a double whammy. The air is thin, reducing power output at a time when you need all the power you can get. This is especially troublesome with naturally aspirated engines relying on atmospheric pressure to fill the combustion chamber with air. I’m not aware of any gasoline powered coaches that have forced induction (i.e. supercharging or turbocharging). Our Cummins ISL diesel has a turbocharger that can mitigate the effect of the thin atmosphere.

But, there are limitations. The Holset turbo on our engine is sized for performance, including excellent throttle response and good power output. However, at elevations above about 9,000 feet above sea level, it can’t completely overcome the lack of oxygen. At lower elevations under normal atmospheric conditions, it produces a little over 25 psi of boost, packing air into the combustion chamber to allow peak power. The last four-mile grade to Monarch is above 9,000 feet and we only developed about 20psi of boost. Turbochargers with larger compressors are commonly used in piston-engine aircraft for power output at high altitude, but those engines typically run at a constant RPM and throttle setting. A large compressor wheel on a motor vehicle would result in a lag in throttle response, poor drivability and a very narrow powerband.

I dropped the transmission down to third gear and let our speed fall to just under 40mph with the engine spinning 1,900 rpm. This kept the big radiator cooling fan turning quickly and also had the water pump spinning, moving the coolant quickly through the engine and radiator. The coolant temperature held at a steady 195 degrees.

Once we reached the summit, we quickly dropped about 3,000 feet of elevation. I used the Jacobs Engineering compression brake (Jake brake) to hold our speed down on the rapid descent. We didn’t encounter any adverse weather conditions and had great visibility over the top.

Our route took us past the Blue Mesa Reservoir at an elevation of about 7,500 feet. We had another short, steep grade up to Cerro Summit at 8,042 feet above sea level where we had full power and held good speed.

Our destination was the Elks Lodge at Montrose, Colorado. We arrived by 2:30pm after fueling up in town. We set up a dry camp in their lot before a thundershower came in. We had a quiet evening with passing showers. I watched some of the US Open, then turned to the first NFL game of the season. It was a bit of a yawner from my point of view.

This morning, I unloaded the Spyder and we headed out –  backtracking on US 50 about seven miles, then turning north on CO347 to the entrance of the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park. It was about 15 miles total to the park entrance. Black Canyon was designated as a National Monument in 1933  and redesignated as a National Park in 1999.

Black Canyon was formed through erosion from the Gunnison River. The river drops an average of 34 feet per mile through the entire canyon making it the fifth steepest descent in the country. At Chasm View, it drops 240 feet per mile. By comparison, the Colorado River drops an average of 7.5 feet per mile through the Grand Canyon.

Black Canyon has steep walls – nearly vertical in most areas. The average drop from the rim to the bottom is about 2,000 feet. We followed the south rim trail and made several stops to hike to viewpoints and take a few photos.

I tried to capture the fall-like colors on the mesa above the canyon. The scrub oak, balsam and berry plants had various shades of red, yellow and orange. The mid-day sun washed the color out of the photos.

On the way out, we turned off at East Portal Access Road. This steep road drops all the way down to the river. It has to be one of the steepest roads I’ve been on with tight turns and a rough surface. It was slow going. Donna likened it to an amusement park ride.

It’s no joke – I think it was steeper than 16% in places

At the bottom, there’s a pool where they divert water from the Gunnison River through a long tunnel to irrigate land around Montrose. The tunnel, built between 1905 and 1909, is 5.8 miles long and it’s been in use since then. In the winter when the water is low, the tunnel is closed off for inspection and maintenance.

Pool in the Gunnison River near the diversion tunnel

We came back to town famished around 1:30pm and stopped at the Horsefly Brewery for burgers. I paired my Southwest Burger with a red ale. Donna had her burger without the bun.

Tomorrow morning we’ll continue our two-night stop-over plan with a drive to Durango. We plan to make a short stop in Ouray – the locals here in Montrose pronounce it YOU-ray – to look around. Then we’ll continue south on the Million Dollar Highway over Red Mountain Pass at an elevation of 11,018 feet above sea level. We plan to stay at the fairgrounds in Durango for two or three nights.

 

 

 

 

Our New Hometown

In my post last Thursday, I said I was looking forward to some relaxation. I mostly got my wish, but there were a few things that needed to be done. A change of address isn’t as simple as it sounds. There were several notifications that had to be made – financial institutions, insurance companies, pharmacy, vehicle registration and driver’s license, voter registration – I’m still coming up with things.

I also had a couple of small projects to tackle. Just before we arrived here in Siuox Falls, I was driving up I-29 with the cruise control set. As we neared the city and traffic volume increased, I tapped the brake pedal to cancel the cruise control – this usually works best as I can then press the resume button if I want to go back to cruise control without having to reset it. This time the brake pedal didn’t cancel the cruise control and I had to turn it off with the button on the steering wheel. I made a mental note to check it out after we settled in.

When I was dropping the trailer in our site, I set the engine speed to high idle. I did this by simultaneously pressing the cruise control “on” button and the “set” button. This increases the idle speed to about 1,000 rpm and keeps heat in the combustion chambers. Idling a big diesel slowly for extended periods can allow the cylinders to cool too much and unburned fuel can collect on the cylinder walls – eventually it’ll make its way past the piston rings and dilute the oil in the crankcase. Stepping on the brake pedal drops the engine speed back to the normal idle speed – around 650 rpm. Except this time it didn’t. I dropped the idle speed with idle control rocker switch and parked the coach. I had Donna check the brake lights – as I suspected, the brake lights weren’t working.

The control module for the cruise control receives a signal from the brake light switch. When you press the brake pedal, the brake light switch closes and activates the brake lights. I thought the brake light switch on our coach was probably a pressure switch hydraulically actuated by the master cylinder. I was surprised when I crawled under the coach on Thursday to find it wasn’t so, it was a simple, spring-loaded mechanical switch on the brake lever arm. The brake pedal is attached to a lever arm that’s shaped somewhat like a boomerang. The center of the arm is mounted to a pivot point and the other end of the arm is attached to the master cylinder pushrod. A switch is mounted against the lower portion of the arm – with the brake pedal in the normal (not on) position, the arm presses against the switch and opens it. When you step on the brake pedal, the arm moves away from the spring-loaded switch and it closes, completing the electrical circuit to the brake lights and sending a signal to the cruise control module.

Brake light switch

I had Donna step on the brake while I observed the switch, It was stuck in the open position. I pulled it closed and it started working again. I sprayed some WD40 on the switch rod and had her work the pedal a few times. All was good, job done.

Friday Donna rode her bike on the bike path. The paved path is only about half a mile from Tower Campground and runs along the Big Sioux River. It was hot out – the thermometer hit 86 degrees with high humidity. I mostly puttered around and relaxed with a book. In the afternoon we rode the Spyder to another local brewery – Granite City Food and Brewery. The place has a good reputation, but I found the beers to be average at best. I think they’re known more for the food they serve.

Speaking of food, later Donna fixed shrimp fennel and feta which she served over rotini. Yum!

Shrimp with fennel and feta over rotini

My friend David Hobden bought a new motorcycle and I’ve been following a road trip he’s on with his motorcycling buddy. Dave got a 2017 Indian – I think it’s the Chieftain model. They rode from Colorado Springs, Colorado down to Louisiana. The other day I saw a guy here in the park with an Indian Roadmaster. I talked to him for a bit and found out that the rights to the Indian name were obtained by Polaris and they have been building Indian Motorcycles since 2014. The Indian name was used by a few different manufacturers in the ’90s and early 2000s – some of them weren’t very well-engineered motorcycles.

Polaris made Victory motorcycles and their engineering is proven. The new Indians look like a great motorcycle, worthy of the name. The original Indian Motorcycle company made great bikes from 1901 to 1953. Interestingly, another guy here at the RV park has an antique Indian that he rides almost every day. One evening Donna and I walked down to his site and checked it out. It was a 1946 model. I’ve ridden motorcycles since I was a kid, but I don’t know if I could handle this one. The throttle is on the left grip, not the right. That’s because you need your right hand to grab the shift lever next to the fuel tank to shift gears while working the throttle with your left hand and the clutch with your left foot!

1946 Indian

Shift lever and knob next to the fuel tank

Saturday I set up the Traeger wood pellet fired smoker grill and prepared a rack of baby back ribs. That was my big project for the day! The temperature reached the upper 80s and I mostly stayed cool and read a book. Donna has been braving the heat and either walking the river trail or biking every day. I read two books over the weekend and watched the Moto GP race from Austria on Sunday. I got ambitious in the early afternoon and cleaned the Traeger and the Weber Q and relined them with aluminum foil.

Saturday evening Donna and rode I the Spyder to the fairgrounds and went to the PRCA rodeo. We enjoy rodeos – it’s an All-American experience although several Brazilian cowboys are on the professional circuit nowadays.

Monday I started packing and organizing the trailer. I had one more project – it was time to service the Spyder. Nothing is easy on the Spyder. You have to remove body panels – the tupperware – to get to anything. Then the engineers have packaged everything so tightly that the simplest tasks are a struggle. For example, the oil filter element is housed under a metal cap on the left side of the crankcase. The cap is held in place by two cap screws. Fine, except they routed the shift linkage and an oil line right in front of the cap. The lower screw cannot even be seen. I removed and installed it by feel only and had to wiggle the filter element out past the obstructions. Oh well, it’s a once-a-year task and I got it done.

Today we’ll be pulling out of here. I think we’ll dry camp overnight at Ditty’s Diner in Kimball as we head west. We already checked and they allow overnight parking in the large lot by the diner. Rain is forecast to move in from the east early this afternoon. Hopefully we’ll outrun it as we move west.

 

Mister, Can You Help Me?

Sunday was our last night at Griff’s Valley View RV Park. We really liked this place – it’s right on the bike trail, clean and well-maintained and did I mention quiet?  Donna seared a flank steak in a cast iron pan on our induction cooktop. She sauteed fresh green beans and cherry tomatoes that we bought at the farmers’ market the day before. She served the flank steak with pan gravy over mashed sweet potato and it was a winner!

Seared flank steak

After dinner, I put away our chairs – I had already packed the Weber Q grill and Donna’s bike in the trailer. I checked the lug nuts on the trailer wheels with a torque wrench – they were fine. For the first few thousand miles, the trailer lug nuts needed to be tightened periodically. Now they seem to have settled in.

A thunderstorm passed through in the wee hours of the morning. By the time we were up and had breakfast, it was drying outside. Donna went out for a morning run and we showered before hitting the road at a leisurely 10:45am.  We had a couple of possibilities in mind for an overnight stay on our way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Our route took us up I-35 about 20 miles before we turned west on US30 through Ames.

We decided we would head to Spencer and dry camp at the Walmart there. We stayed in Spencer last year when Donna rode across Iowa in the RAGBRAI event. Our route took us northwest toward Spencer in a stair-step fashion along divided US highways and two-lane county roads. It was all farmland. It’s amazing to me to see nothing but corn or soy beans for mile after mile. The terrain in Iowa isn’t as flat as you might think. There are gently rolling hills.

At the junction of IA3 and US71, traffic came to a stop. When I say traffic I mean all eight cars on the highway – there isn’t a lot of traffic through central Iowa farmland. The hold up was due to an oversize load on three trucks trying to negotiate the 90-degree turn. Once the trucks and escort vehicles got through the turn, they pulled off to the shoulder to allow the cars and trucks they held up to pass.

Once we were in Spencer, we made a right turn and headed east on 11th Street – which is still US71 – and found Walmart. We parked in the northwest corner at a level spot. Once I had us set up, I saw a commotion down the road where we made the turn. It was the oversize truck convoy coming through. Once again, after they made the 90 degree turn, they pulled into the center turning lanes and waited for traffic to clear before moving on.

The three trucks were hauling wind turbine blades. These long composite blades were probably for a GE 2-2.5 Mega-Watt wind turbine – it’s the most common in the US. The turbine utilizes three blades to power the generator as the blades are spun by the wind. The blades for a GE 2 – 2.5 MW turbine are 116 feet long. I don’t know how they got the trucks and trailers through 90-degree turns! I shot a couple of pictures as they drove past.

Wind turbine blade

Wind turbines use three blades because it’s the best compromise when you factor in efficiency, balance and tip speed. I never thought about how they get the blades to the site before.

We had a quiet night although once again, a thunderstorm passed through in the night. It was dry in the morning and we took our time getting ready for the road. Donna took a walk to a nearby park for exercise before we left.

As we drove through old downtown Spencer, Donna recalled riding through it last year. We stayed on US71 to the junction with US18 which took us west. I recognized a lot of this road – this was the route – in the opposite direction – we took to get to Spencer last year.

US18 took us through Canton, South Dakota. When I was a kid, I visited Canton in the summer of 1965 to stay with my great-uncle Ed. Ed and his wife Sadie lived in Canton where he was the county sheriff. I stayed with them for a week after spending a week at a cousin’s farm near Lennox.

We pulled into the Tower Campground around 12:30pm and were assigned site 207. The back-in site is paved and has a pad for a vehicle. We dropped the trailer without too much difficulty although we had to maneuver within inches of a tree. We were all settled in and relaxing by 2pm.

Strange reflections on our coach in site 207

The back-in sites here align with the site directly behind putting the back of our coach a few feet from the back of the coach behind us. We have a nice grassy area with a picnic table. We’re booked here for a week.

Donna prepared something new to us for dinner. She made blackened catfish and served it with green lemon rice.

Blackened catfish with lemon rice

We’re re-watching the HBO series Deadwood and sat through a couple of episodes before heading to bed. Lying in bed, we could hear voices from our neighbor. A group of people were sitting outside talking over each and telling tales. Some of them must have been funny, because the group would roar with laughter. By 11:30pm, I’d heard enough. The campground rule is quiet time after 10pm.

I went outside and found six or seven women sitting around a campfire in the site behind us. They must have thought they were alone in the woods or something. I asked them if they knew what time it was. One of them actually looked at her watch. I reminded them that quiet time was 10pm to 7am. One woman said, “We’re just sitting at the fire next to my coach.” I told her they were sitting at a fire 20 feet from my bedroom and needed to quiet down. Things like this happen sometimes in RV parks – people forget about neighbors and think they’re camped out when in reality they’re in a high-density area. Hopefully it won’t happen again.

Wednesday morning I was up early to shower and have a cup of coffee before I headed out to the Avera Healthcenter for my annual check-up. We have health insurance through Avera and it covers an annual physical here in South Dakota. That was the main reason for our stop here. Donna had three appointments for the day – the first one at a hair salon, followed by a mammogram and a visit to her doctor.

We worked out a plan where she walked 2 1/2 miles to the hair salon, then I rode the Spyder there to pick her up at 1pm to take her to the doctor about six miles away. I got to the hair salon a little early and was standing by the Spyder when an Asian women from the nail salon next door called out to me and asked if I would help her. She waved at me to follow her – I shrugged my shoulders and followed her into the nail salon.

She told me in broken English that she needed help putting up nail polish display racks and handed me a cordless drill and a handful of screws. I installed four racks for her and she offered me a pedicure. I declined as Donna would be ready to go any minute. It all seemed a little bizarre, but it made the wait interesting.

Donna had two appointments at facilities about a mile apart from each other. I dropped her off at the first place, then she walked to the second appointment and I planned to pick her up there around 3:45pm. Again, I arrived a little early, but I brought a book with me to fill the time. It’s a good thing I did – the doctor was running late and Donna hadn’t even got in for her 3 o’clock appointment when I arrived!

We were on our way 45 minutes later and stopped at Hydra Beer Company – a local brewery and tasting room – for a cold one. They have some good ales made onsite in their 10-barrel system. It was a good way to cap off a busy day.

We grilled green chile turkey burgers for dinner before watching a couple more episodes of Deadwood and then hit the sack. Thankfully it was quiet last night and I slept well – I needed it. Donna had to go out for one more appointment this morning for a fasting blood draw, then we can relax. The forecasts calls for sunny skies and upper 80s for the next week. I have a couple of projects in mind and we’ll go to the rodeo on Saturday. Other than that, I’m looking forward to some relaxed days.

 

Iowa Cheese and Beer

Friday morning Donna marinated a pork tenderloin with her mojo marinade sauce. I grilled it on the Weber Q for dinner and Donna prepared acorn squash and asparagus for side dishes. I cooked the pork to an internal temperature of 135 degrees – perfect.

Mojo marinated pork loin with acorn squash and asparagus

Saturday morning we headed out on the Spyder around 9am. We went to downtown Des Moines for the Saturday farmers’ market. The market is huge – it covers nine city blocks in the historic courthouse district.

Des Moines farmer’s market – Polk County Courthouse in the background

We spent an hour and a half wandering and shopping the vendor stalls. Donna bought lots of fresh veggies. We also bought some cheeses – I bought a quarter pound of Maytag blue cheese that came from the Maytag farm near Newton, Iowa. This delicious cheese differs from most blue cheeses in that it’s made from cow’s milk instead of the traditional sheep milk or goat milk. Maytag blue cheese was developed in 1938 by Iowa State University and was first produced at the Maytag farm in Newton, Iowa in 1941. Frederick L. Maytag II and Robert Maytag, grandsons of the founder of the Maytag appliance company, Frederick L Maytag, first made it commercially available. It is delicious – a little bit goes a long way!

We left the farmers’ market around 11am as the crowd grew heavier and the temperature started to rise. The temperature hit 90 degrees in the afternoon. We mostly hung out in the air-conditioned coach and read in the afternoon. Griff’s Valley View RV Park is very quiet. The grounds are well-maintained and the clubhouse right behind our site (one of two on the property) is immaculate. The bathrooms look more like something you would see in a fancy restaurant or hotel – nice tile floors and backsplashes with granite counters. The shower stalls are also nicely finished, clean and private with individual exhaust fans in each of the showers. Saturday someone reserved the clubhouse for a party and it was still quiet!

Saturday evening Donna manned the grill and made chicken breasts that she spiced simply and served them with a kale salad – made with fresh kale from the farmer’s market, green apple, chopped dates and almonds and crumbled Maytag blue cheese. A nutritious, delicious meal!

Chicken breast and kale salad

I paired the meal with an IPA from Kolona Brewing Company in Kolona, Iowa. The ale was called Sucha Much and it was made with only two hop varieties – Nugget for bittering and CItra for finishing. But they use five different malts in the wort. It’s unfiltered and the cloudy brew has yeast dregs – it was interesting, flavorful and I liked it. I read that their brewery has four 15-barrel fermenters and two 30-barrel fermenters but only two 15-barrel bright tanks – no wonder some of their beers aren’t clarified.

Sucha Much Today

A thunderstorm passed through around 4am this morning. With it came high winds, but it didn’t last long. After breakfast, Donna went out for a 25-mile bike ride (her fourth ride this past week) before it got too hot. I watched a very entertaining Moto GP race from the Czech Republic.

I don’t think I mentioned the ponds here at Griff’s Valley View RV Park – they have two of them and they have fish in them. I fished for a bit on Thursday and caught half a dozen fish in about 45 minutes. I braved the 96-degree temperature and fished again this afternoon. I caught 12 bluegills in about an hour! The fish weren’t very large, but fishing is always fun when you’re catching fish and I was releasing them anyway.

A couple of bluegills from the pond

When it cools down a bit this evening, I’ll pack the grill and Donna’s bike in the trailer. Tomorrow we’ll head out of here. I’m not sure where we’ll stop tomorrow – somewhere between here and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We’ve booked a week at Tower Campground there beginning on Tuesday. We plan to make doctor visits and check out our new mail service location while we’re there.

It looks like we could be in for another wet driving day. Hopefully we won’t be caught in any severe thunderstorms.

 

Satellites and Trains

We’ve been enjoying our stay at Griff’s Valley View RV Park in Altoona – near Des Moines, Iowa. The park is super clean and well-maintained and it’s also very quiet – both day and night. Now that we’re west of the Mississippi, it was time to reset our DISH Network satellite antenna to the western arc.

DISH Network broadcasts from clusters of satellites in different locations. They have multiple satellites in each location – some are for redundancy and others are used for various channels, pay-per-view and High Definition. I don’t know for sure how many satellites they use. The main television broadcast satellites are located at a longitude of 110 degrees west and 119 degrees west. Additional satellites are at 129 degrees west and 61.5 degrees west. The 61.5 degree satellites are for the eastern arc. The western and eastern arc overlap in the midwest.

When we’re in the northeast, we cannot receive a signal from 129. We have to locate satellites at 61.5 degrees. Our Winegard Road Trip satellite antenna has to be reconfigured to locate 61.5. This is done with DIP (dual-inline package) switches on the unit. There are eight DIP switches. By opening or closing various switches, the motherboard for the antenna is reconfigured. Anyway, while we were in the northeast, I set up the satellite antenna for 61.5 degrees – DISH eastern arc. Now I had to reset it to the western arc – 110, 119 and 129 degrees. It entailed climbing on the roof, removed the antenna dome cover and configuring the switch. Not a big deal.

Satellite antenna controller

Tuesday afternoon Donna and I rode the Spyder to Bondurant – a small town a few miles away from here. We went to the Reclaimed Rails Brewery. They have some good beer brewed onsite in their 15-barrel system and the finish work of the interior of the pub is unique.

The have reclaimed and repurposed wood and corrugated tin for the finish work. The bar top surface was cut out of an old trailer they found in Branson, Missouri. The bar was trimmed with a cove taken from an old train depot. The ceiling was lined with corrugated tin they found on an old barn in Minnesota. The table tops on the deck were made from the lids of old oak bourbon barrels. It was all nicely done – I wish I’d taken some photos.

After we came home, Donna whipped up seared scallops with a jalapeno vinaigrette and sweet potato spinach hash for dinner.

Seared scallops and sweet potato hash

Thursday morning Donna was getting ready to head out on the Chichaqua Valley Trail on her bike when she found a problem with our door. Our door had a check lever that stops it from opening more than 90 degrees. The check lever has a pawl that locks the lever in place, holding the door in the open position. To close the door, you have to release the pawl with either the inside or the outside door handle. The door wasn’t locking in place – it was swinging about in the breeze.

I was afraid the pawl was broken. This can happen if someone unfamiliar with the door mechanism tries to force the door closed without releasing the pawl with the door handle. We haven’t had any visitors lately, but it could have been damaged at an earlier time. I got the ladder out of the trailer and inspected it. The pawl wasn’t broken – it was sticking in the open position.

Door check lever pawl

The pawl is spring-loaded and is operated by a cable attached to the door lock mechanism in the door. I pushed the pawl into the locked position and it seemed fine. I released the pawl with the handle, then closed and opened the door. The pawl didn’t catch on the door check lever. I inspected everything and didn’t find anything broken, so I cleaned and lubed the cable and the pawl rod. It’s working nicely now. Job done.

Door panel removed to expose lock mechanism

Donna rode up the bike trail past Valeria and back – about 26 miles – and got home before it was too hot out. After lunch, we took the Spyder north on US65 and rode through the little village of Valeria and continued east for a few miles until we found Trainland USA. Trainland USA is a museum/display featuring Lionel “O” gauge model trains and accessories.

It was conceived and built by Red Atwood and many friends. He began collecting Lionel trains in 1961. He eventually built a 2600-square-foot building to display trains and accessories – including model trains dating back to 1916.

It has 4,000 feet of track, 35,000 hand-cut ties and 120 automatic switches. The display is set up to depict train activity across the country. You take a walking tour that begins with a diorama of Grand Central in New York, then follow along as the dioramas take you through the southern states to the west coast, up the coast and back to Omaha. I shot a few pictures, but the lighting was challenging and I was shooting through glass, so the pictures aren’t the sharpest.

 

On the way back, we made another stop at Reclaimed Rails Brewery for a cold one. I really enjoyed their red lager. Last night, Donna prepared tortilla-crusted tilapia for a dinner – always a favorite.

Tortilla-crusted tilapia with a dollop of salsa and green beans

The weather had been warm – in the low to mid 80s and breezy. Today will be the start of a heat wave. The forecast calls for a high of 97 degrees and the weekend will continue to have highs of 90 or greater. Tomorrow we plan to go to the farmers’ market in downtown Des Moines – rated one of the best in the country.