Category Archives: Bicycle

Vintage Trailers and Cars

We’re still here in Alana’s driveway in Arlington, Washington. There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel though – Lifestyles Recreational Products expects to have the parts to complete the repair of the Spyder this week. Then I have to sell it.

We’ve been thinking about ways to increase available space in the trailer. I’ll need room to load Midget-San in there with enough clear space to avoid any damage to the car. After bicycling on Thursday, Donna came up with an idea. We were storing four bicycles in the trailer – her road bike, her beater bike, my road bike and my mountain bike.

I haven’t ridden my Orbea road bike in over a year. Donna isn’t planning to do any more long distance events like RAGBRAI with her road bike. She thought she should get rid of her bikes and replace them with one hybrid road/trail bike. I could get rid of my Orbea since I haven’t been riding it. That would take two bicycles out of the trailer but we would still have bikes to ride.

On Friday, we rode our bikes – Donna on her Trek Madone road bike, me on my Orbea – to Arlington Velo Sport bike shop. We did a little horse trading and ended up leaving both bikes there on trade and placing an order for a Trek Dual Sport 2 hybrid bike for Donna. The bike should be here by the end of the week.

The rest of this post is picture heavy. The weather has improved since my last post. Friday we had a high of about 70 degrees and enjoyed the two-mile walk back to Alana’s place from the bike shop. Saturday was another clear, sunny day with a high in the upper 70s. Donna and I drove Midget-San to Stanwood for a vintage RV (trailer) show. They had over a dozen restored RVs from the ’50s and ’60s on display. Some of the old rigs were very small, but usable for weekend camping.

Small travel trailer from 1969
Cozy interior
Beautiful truck and trailer from the ’50s
You could find something like this in every suburban neighborhood in the ’60s
Custom Ford Victoria and pop-up trailer
1950s pop-up camp trailer
Spartan Aircraft Company Royal Spartanette

This 1951 Royal Spartanette was built by the Spartan Aircraft Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. These were very expensive travel trailers and were considered “The Cadillac of trailers.” The floor plan on this one was laid out in such a way that it seemed roomier than our coach with the slides out! I wonder what they used to tow this rig?

We had lunch at the Chinese restaurant behind the Spartanette trailer at the Phoenix Pavilion. The food was great. After lunch, we took a drive over the bridge to Camano Island. Donna found free public access to the water on the island. We drove to English Boom Preserve and parked there.

Midget-San at English Boom Preserve

The name comes from the 1920s-1930s when the English Lumber Company logged trees in the area and floated log booms into Skagit Bay here. We were there at low tide and the bay is basically a tidal flat here. This tidal flat is an important habitat for salmon. Smolts swim out of the rivers they were spawned in – mainly the Snohomish, Stillaguamish and Skagit Rivers – and the eel grass along this flat provides cover for them as they grow and enter the sea.

Tidal flat at English Boom – snow covered Mount Baker in the center background

We made a stop at Ale Spike Brewery on the island. Donna liked her porter but I wasn’t impressed with my choice there. I should have known better when the Firechicken Ale I chose was described as red ale – amber. Okay, which is it – a red ale or an amber? It didn’t taste like either one – it was bitter with a yeasty aftertaste. Although the bar maid said it was their most popular brew, I didn’t care for it at all.

Is it a red or an amber?

After we came home, I went out to the Burger King parking lot nearby. When I lived here in the early 2000s, I had a couple of old Corvettes in the garage. On Saturday evenings, the local hot rodders would gather in the Burger King lot to swap lies and admire each other’s cars. I hadn’t been there in over 15 years, but I wanted to see if they still came out. They did.

Custom old Ford cabover truck
…with a big Ford V8 mid-ship
A guy I knew named Jan Boyd once owned this car in Darrington – big supercharger
The rear license plate folds up to show off the chrome

The guys there told me there was a big car show the following day – Sunday – up in Bellingham. They said they expected around 400 cars there.

On Sunday morning, Alana’s boyfriend, Kevin, and his sons picked up Alana, Gabi and Gabi’s friend, Kennedy around 6:30am. They were off to the airport for a flight to Hawaii. They’re spending the week on the big island and are looking forward to time on the beach and the golf course.

I made the 50-mile drive up to Bellingham in Midget-San while Donna used Alana’s car to go play pickleball in Marysville. I’m still resting the groin pull – it’s been a bother for months now.

The car show in Bellingham was a fundraiser for veterans. I used to do car shows with my Corvettes – I had a 1965 big block roadster and a 1972 LT-1 T- top. I got tired of the car show scene after a few years though.

At the show in Bellingham, I found myself drawn more to the vintage and unusual cars instead of ogling all of the muscle cars – the Camaros, Corvettes and Mustangs.

Remember the mid-engined truck at Burger King? This is what it was originally like
Fully restored 1950s MGA – it even has the original tool kit and oilers
MGB with a supercharged 215ci aluminum block Buick V8

The 215 cubic inch Buick aluminum block V8 was developed by General Motors and brought to market in 1960. This engine was way ahead of its time. It was lightweight and durable and produced great power. But it didn’t catch on with the American consumer – bigger was always thought to be better. Eventually GM sold all of the tooling and rights to Rover in England and they used versions of this engine into the 1990s.

MGA with aluminum Buick V8 and trailer

I talked to the owner of the blue MGA. He had pictures of the car as he found it sitting in a pasture – rusty, missing a rear quarter panel, no hood or grill. He and his son restored it to this condition and he bought the trailer so he and his wife could drive the car from Washington to Reno, Nevada for a week at the Hot August Nights car show.

It turned out his son was the guy with the supercharged Buick V8 MGB in the previous picture. Talented car guy – he can handle all the mechanical aspects, design and fabricate, weld and paint.

Morris Minor from the 1930s

This Morris Minor was designed for the narrow roads of England. I think this coupe is smaller than Midget-San.

English Ford

This Ford built in England is much smaller than its American counterparts. Small ruled the road in England while bigger was better here.

There was a downside to the car show. While Midget-San was parked there, someone decided they needed the MG emblem on the rear deck lid and removed it from the car. I can hardly believe someone would steal the emblem from the car, but there it is. I ordered a replacement and should have it in a few days. Sheesh!

The week ahead calls for rain Tuesday night. Otherwise, we should be in for warm, sunny days with highs around 80 degrees. Donna’s new bike should arrive on Thursday.

Rolling the Dice

We’ve been without wheels since the Spyder came up with a dead cylinder Sunday afternoon. I detailed my diagnostic process in the last post. The new ignition coil module was supposed to come in on Wednesday, but when I checked with Valley Motorsports in Eugene, they told me the part wouldn’t be there until Thursday between 11am and 1pm.

Donna talked to our neighbor, Mickey, and found out that he and his wife were going to Roseburg Thursday morning. They said they could drop me off at Enterprise Rental Car in Roseburg. I called and reserved a car for pick-up Thursday morning.

I picked up the car around 9:30am and headed north – it was about an hour drive to Eugene. I had checked a map of the city and had a plan. First I stopped at Costco where I bought a few items including a new camp chair. It’s a folding director’s chair with a folding side table – not something I could easily carry on the Spyder, so I took advantage of having a car.

Next I went to the west side of town and checked out the Walmart. I wanted to see what the overnight parking situation looked like and I also needed to pick up aluminum drip pan liners for the Weber Q. From there I went to the Elks’ Lodge to see what it looked like for an overnight spot. The west side Elks’ Lodge is a no go for RV parking. The lot is tight and shared with several other businesses. I was hoping to find a place to dry camp Monday night so we could be close to Source Engineering in Veneta, Oregon where we have an appointment Tuesday morning.

After a quick stop for lunch at Taco Time, I found Valley Motorsports at 12:30pm. They said they would call when the part came in and I hadn’t heard from them yet. I checked at the parts counter and was told the day’s parts shipment had just arrived and was being checked in. I was going to sit in the waiting area and read a book while they did that, but a guy came out with my part after about three minutes!

I was 99% sure the ignition coil was the culprit for the lack of spark in the rear cylinder, but there was a small chance that it could be a fault in the Engine Control Module (ECM) which sends a signal to the coil pack. I couldn’t test for this signal without the proprietary B.U.D.S. computer program that’s only found at Can-Am dealers. Ignition components are not returnable once they’ve been installed. I rolled the dice and paid for the $170 coil pack.

An hour later, I was back at Timber Valley SKP Park and got to work. Mickey stopped by and offered to follow me to Roseburg when I returned the rental car. I told him that with any luck we’ll use the Spyder to get back from the rental car agency.

Well, my luck ran out on me and my roll of the dice was a loser. The coil pack didn’t fix the problem. I have no choice now but to take it to a dealer where they can interrogate the ECM and run through the diagnostic protocol to see why the rear ignition coil isn’t receving a signal. I know the primary voltage and grounds are good and the coil is new, so it must be a loss of signal to fire the coil that is the root of the problem. I took Mickey up on the offer to pick me up at the rental agency in Roseburg.

I have a coil pack for sale!

We’ve extended our stay here until Monday. Tomorrow morning I’ll drive the coach to Les Schwab in Sutherlin and have the tires replaced. Monday we’ll move to Richardson Park Campground on Fern Ridge Lake, just north of Veneta. After we have the work performed at Source Engineering on Tuesday, we’ll head north. Our original plan was to go to the coast, but now that’s changed.

We plan to get to my oldest daughter, Alana’s house in Arlington, Washington by the end of the week. From there, I can have the Spyder transported to the dealer in Mount Vernon and we’ll hang out in Alana’s driveway until it’s fixed. Sometimes the best laid plans go awry.

The days here have been warm – in the mid-80s until yesterday. Yesterday, the high was in the low 70s and a few rain drops fell in the afternoon. It rained overnight and showers continue today off and on. I need to bicycle into town at some point to pick up a general delivery package at the post office. We’ll be mostly homebound until we get the Spyder repaired. We’d hoped to check out some of the wineries and other sights around here, but that’ll have to wait until next time.

No post is complete without a dinner plate photo. On Tuesday, Donna prepared tortilla-crusted tilapia. This time she served it over a smear of avocado puree on the plate before she added the fish and salsa. She served corn with cilantro on the side.

Tortilla-crusted tilapia

Little Fish and Big Trouble

I mentioned in my last post that the upcoming weekend was a “free fishing weekend” in Oregon. So on Saturday morning, Donna and I loaded the tackle box and our fishing poles and rode the Spyder up to Cooper Creek Reservoir – about four miles away from Timber Valley SKP Park just east of Sutherlin.

The west end of the lake was crowded with fisherman – they had a youth fishing event scheduled there. So we went to the east end of the lake where we had scouted out another fishing access point. There were only a few people there. We didn’t have much luck. We spent about an hour and a half there and I only caught two small bluegill that I released. Meanwhile, Donna was skunked.

In the afternoon, Donna took the Spyder to the grocery store in town and bought a few things. She made salmon cakes for dinner, but she used a different recipe. This recipe was a little more involved than what she usually makes – it included capers plus chopped red peppers and red onion sauteed in butter versus the usual mayonnaise. She served an arugula salad on the side with the apple cider dressing we bought the day before at the farmers’ market. Tasty!

Salmon cake plate

On Sunday morning, after I watched the Moto GP race from Mugello, Italy, we went back to the reservoir and tried the west end this time – it wasn’t nearly as crowded as the day before. Even though it was free fishing weekend, we still had to pay $4/day to park at the reservoir. The Cooper Creek Reservoir is a long, narrow body of water stretching west to east then southeast. It’s large enough for water skiing and we saw a water skier and few people tubing behind powerboats.

West end of Cooper Creek Reservoir

Once again, the fishing wasn’t too hot and we were both skunked. We only saw a couple of fish caught although a dozen or so people were fishing.

Donna fishing for fish

When we came home, Donna hit the ice cream social at the park – she had a coupon for a free scoop of ice cream. After she came home, I fired up the Spyder to run an errand and trouble struck. It was only running on one cylinder. I did a cursory check, then decided to leave it for Monday morning. It was hot out in the direct sun and I didn’t feel like getting too involved with it.

The afternoon temperatures have reached the low 80s for the last few days and we run the air conditioners in the coach in the afternoon. Donna made a simple dish for dinner last night – spaghetti squash topped with beef ragu and shaved parmesan.

Beef ragu over spaghetti squash

This morning, I got to work on the Spyder. The first step, as always, was to peel the onion. To do anything mechanical on the Spyder, body panels have to come off. In this case, I had to remove seven panels with numerous fasteners. It’s tedious work.

An internal combustion gasoline engine needs a few things in order to work – you need fuel and air in the proper ratio, compression and a spark for ignition at the right time. For some reason, one of the cylinders wasn’t getting fuel or spark. To get to the spark plugs, I had to remove the air box. Everything is packaged so tightly on the Spyder, this job is easier said than done. After about an hour, I could finally pull the spark plugs.

I grounded the spark plugs and cranked the starter to see if I was getting a spark. No spark on the rear cylinder, good spark on the front one. I switched the plugs in the leads and tried again. No spark in the rear cylinder. This told me it wasn’t a problem with the spark plug. Next I switched the ignition wires at the coil and cranked the engine again. Still no spark in the rear cylinder. This told me the ignition wires weren’t the problem.

Without the specialty diagnostic equipment to check further, I relied on deductive reasoning. The ignition coil is a dual-coil unit. Both coils get primary voltage from the same source. Since one coil worked, it’s not a primary voltage problem. Since the ignition wires and the spark plugs were good, it left the coil as the most likely culprit. It’s possible that a fault in the engine control module could be preventing the rear coil from receiving a signal, but I don’t think that’s it. I’m putting my money on a bad ignition coil.

I checked around and the nearest dealer is in Eugene – about 60 miles away. I had them order a new coil assembly for $170. I found one for half that on Ebay, but it was sold “as-is” with no warranty and no returns. I didn’t trust it and I also didn’t know how long it would take to get. The dealer can get one in two days. I’ll have to rent a car and drive up to Eugene to fetch it. I put the plugs back in, the airbox on and reassembled most of the body work leaving off only what I need to access the ignition coil assembly. I spent a total of about two and half hours at this point.

Meanwhile Donna went out on her road bike for about an hour. After lunch, she went back out again on her beater bike – I call it that because it’s a rigid frame mountain bike she bought used for $25 – to town for a few items at the grocery store. When she returned, I commandeered the bike and rode to town. I stopped at the Les Schwab tire center to inquire about new tires for the coach. Our tires don’t have much wear after 40,000 miles, but they’re aging out. Our tires were manufactured in 2013 and after six years they’re beginning to show some checking – small cracks – in the sidewalls on at least two of the tires. I was hoping to get seven years out of them, but I won’t push it.

At Les Schwab, I asked Jeremy at the counter for a quote on replacement tires and I also wanted to know the DOT date codes on them. The Department of Transportation requires date codes on all passenger car and truck tires. The codes indicate the calendar week and year of manufacture. He called their warehouse and they had six Toyo M154 295/75 x 22.5 tires with DOT codes of 1419. This means they were made calendar week 14 of 2019 – two months ago. We were good to go.

I wanted to replace the tires here in Oregon because there’s no state sales tax here. On a $3,200 tire bill, that means a significant savings. I ordered the tires and we’ll have them installed on Saturday – oh, I should mention that we extended our stay here in Timber Valley SKP Park until Monday, June 10th.

The forecast calls for a couple more warm days, then much cooler on Thursday and Friday with a chance of rain on Friday. Hopefully I’ll have the Spyder project done by then and dry weather when I take to the coach to Les Schwab on Saturday.

*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!

A Couple of Oddities

The rain is lingering here in northern California longer than expected. We had rain showers off and on all day yesterday. It’s windy this morning and rain is forecast later this morning – possibly a thunderstorm with small hail this afternoon. The forecast high for today is only 63 degrees. If the weather guessers are right, starting tomorrow we’ll have a completely different weather picture. The forecast calls for a high of 80 degrees and no precipitation.

We didn’t do much yesterday – Donna went grocery shopping in Corning and then out for a bike ride. I made a run into town for a few things in between rain showers. I figured while I was hanging around this morning, I would write a short post about a couple of oddities we came across recently.

The first was in Sparks. We went to Great Basin Brewery Friday afternoon for happy hour and had an early dinner and a couple of cold ones. Great Basin has three locations in the area – the Sparks Brewery and Pub, another brewery and pub in Reno and a third location that’s a bottling facility. Great Basin is the oldest currently operating brewery in Nevada. The Sparks location is the headquarters and it opened in 1993.

Sparks and Reno are joined – they aren’t two distinct cities anymore. If you travel westbound from Sparks on Prater Way, once you pass under I-80, it becomes 4th Street and you’re in Reno. When I was a kid back in the 1960s, I came through here on a summer vacation with my grandparents. I remember Sparks being a small town a couple of miles outside of Reno back then. But I digress.

Back to the story at Great Basin. When we left the pub, Donna noticed something odd at the fence by the parking lot. Two bicycles were locked together through the fence, one on each side. The strange thing was the lack of wheels. One bicycle was a road bike and both wheels were missing. The other was a mountain bike and the front wheel was missing.

I took a closer look and could see the remaining rear wheel on the mountain bike had a conventional axle with nuts fixing it in place. The drop-outs for the missing wheels appeared to be quick-release type – no tools required.

Where are the wheels?

We concluded that one of two things occurred here. Either the owners of the bikes removed the wheels and took them wherever they went – we didn’t see anyone with bicycle wheels in the pub. Or, a thief saw a target of opportunity. Since the frames were locked together, he or she simply released the skewers on the quick release axles and took the wheels. We’ll never know.

We came across another odd thing here at Rolling Hills RV Park. We’re in Corning, California in the upper Sacramento Valley. This part of the valley is relatively flat with gently rolling hills. Around the Rolling Hills facility are open fields with native grasses, the casino, an equestrian center and a golf course.

While we were walking through the RV park to check out the sites, we came upon two birds. I immediately recognized them as chukars. But here’s the thing, chuckars don’t belong here. I’ve only found chukars on steep, rocky canyon walls. Their native habitat is actually in the middle east and Asia. But they’ve been successfully introduced in the western states – California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Utah. They’re mostly confined to the rocky steep walls of canyons where they find security and feed on cheatgrass. Most often, water can be found close by.

A pair of chukar in the weeds
They’re watching me watch them

So, what are chukars doing in this fairly flat region? I can only guess that they’re escapees from a game farm, but I’ll probably never know.

There are also plenty of California quail around here, but that’s not unusual.

Last evening, in-between rain showers, Donna grilled shrimp skewers and a new-to-me side dish. It was a portobello mushroom with pesto, prosciutto and mozzarella cheese. It was a treat. She also picked up some fresh corn on the cob. It seems really early for fresh corn, but there it was. The white corn wasn’t the sweetest but it was good.

Grilled shrimp, portobello mushroom and corn

We’ll hang out today and wait for the weather to improve before we start exploring the area. Donna plans to put on a pot of lentil stew – perfect for a rainy day.

*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!

Paddles and Trains

Donna and I were getting ready to head out for a bike ride Monday morning when I remembered she said pickleball was scheduled at the recreation center next to the fairgrounds. We changed our plan and decided to go play there. We’d last played at the end of July in Springfield, Illinois.

While we were at the Elks Lodge in Colorado Springs, I mentioned the Monaco Windsor motorhome behind us that was part of the shuffle as we had to reposition the big rigs in the lot. The Monaco moved to a site with water and electricity. The license plate on the Monaco read “PIKLBLL.” After the move, I met the owner, Ken Porter. We talked for a while and I found out he was a certified pickleball referee and also a rep for Paddletek, a supplier of pickleball paddles. He and his wife also carry a line of pickleball clothing and make pickleball themed jewelry.

Ken was having trouble with one of the slides on his Monaco. He suspected the circuit board controlling the slide was bad. To get to it, he needed to remove the chassis batteries. He told me he hurt his back and asked if I could help. The two chassis batteries weighed about 50 pounds each. I pulled the batteries so he could check out the circuit board. It was indeed faulty – a solid state relay on the board was bad. He said he had this problem once before and the boards were no longer available, but he thought he could repair it. I told him to let me know if he needed any help and I would re-install the chassis batteries.

The next day, he told me the board got damaged when he tried to de-solder the solid state mini-relay. A couple of traces on the board burned. Ken is a pretty sharp guy and he showed me a circuit he had drawn up to replace the circuit board. The purpose of the circuit was to reverse the current to the slide motor so it would extend the slide when the DC motor ran in one direction, then he could reverse the current with a switch to retract the slide. His circuit hard-wired two conventional Bosch 12-volt relays to accomplish this. I looked his drawing over and it looked good.

The next day, he had the parts and he wired it. It worked like a champ. While we were at it, we talked about pickleball. I found out he had several paddles that were demo models he used at pickleball events. Most of them were very lightly used. He also mentioned that he custom wraps the grips on the  handles to fit the size of your hand. He said that a grip that was too large or too small in diameter can cause elbow pain right where the top your forearm joins the humerus. I’d been having this issue.

He checked the grip on my paddles – they were too small for my extra-large hands. I asked him if we could check out some of his Paddletek paddles. He set up a small single-wide net so Donna and I could try some paddles. I ended up buying new paddles for Donna and me. I liked the Paddletek Tempest Wave and Donna liked the Paddletek Bantam TS-5. I checked online and the Wave was going for $130 and the Bantam was $100. He gave me a package deal – both for $100. Can’t beat that deal. He re-wrapped my grip to fit my hand – Donna’s was just right for her.

New Paddletek pickleball paddles

We were anxious to try out the new paddles and this was our first opportunity. At the rec center, they had three indoor courts. We hadn’t played at all in several weeks and hadn’t played indoors since we left San Diego. The group we played with were intermediate level. Donna and I started off a little rusty. Plus, we found the new paddles to be more powerful than what we were used to. I think the thin air here at 6,500 feet above sea level also caused the ball to fly longer than we expected. We soon settled down and played several close matches and had a lot of fun. My elbow didn’t bother me at all.

I should mention Sunday’s dinner. Donna made a favorite with a new twist. She served beef ragu over spaghetti squash presented in the squash shell. It was a nice presentation and an excellent meal with fresh corn on the cob we picked up at the farmers’ market in Montrose Saturday morning.

Beef ragu over spaghetti squash

After a couple of hours of pickleball, my left foot was sore. I have pain near the ball of my foot toward the center, so no more pickleball for a while. Last night, Donna made pan seared salmon with ginger scallion topping, garlic cauliflower mash and fresh green beans.

Pan seared salmon with ginger scallion topping

This morning I got my Specialized Crave mountain bike and Donna’s knock around hybrid out of the trailer. We rode the Animas River Trail – a paved multi-use trail – to historic downtown Durango. We visited the train depot and museum. The museum is free and well worth the time.

Click to enlarge and read if you’re so inclined

The museum had much memorabilia – not all of it train related. They had restored old automobiles along with several rail cars and a Curtiss Model D airplane hanging from the ceiling.

Curtiss Model D Headless Pusher circa 1911

This is where the engineer controlled the steam locomotive – looks complicated

Donna on a luxury private car

Durango train depot

Train rides usually leave the depot to go up the narrow-gauge rail along the Animas River to Silverton. However, a mudslide a few months ago damaged the rail line, so if you want to ride the train you can get on a bus at the Durango Station. The bus takes you up to Rockwood Station where you can board and make the round-trip to Silverton, then catch the bus back to the station. We opted to pass on shortened route – it costs $89/person for a coach class ride.

The Animas River Trail is a nice bike ride. It was about three miles each way to downtown and back. It follows the river and rail line.

Path crossing the Animas River

Railroad bridge on the river

The temperature is in the low 80s this afternoon – about the same as it’s been all weekend. We’ve come to expect a passing thundershower in the afternoons. I’ll load the bikes and straighten out the trailer as we plan to move on tomorrow.

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.

 

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.

 

Corn Country

As I mentioned in my last post, rain was falling Sunday morning. The horse show at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, IL ended Saturday night and everyone was leaving. Most of the sites there don’t have sewer hook ups, so there was a long line at the dump station. Donna and I were in no hurry to leave. I watched the Formula One race from Hungary until heavy rainfall blocked the satellite reception. Oh well, it was time to get to work.

I donned a jacket and my palm straw hat and went out in the rain to pack up the trailer. Then I dumped and flushed the tanks and put the rest of the gear away while Donna made the interior ready for travel. We were ready to go at noon.

Our plan was to drive to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa where we could dry camp overnight at the Walmart there. When I programmed the destination into Nally, our Rand-McNally RV specific GPS, she wanted to route us up the interstate to Peoria, then west into Iowa on I-74 to US34. I wanted to take a rural route and stay off the Interstate. So, I changed the route by setting a waypoint in Rushville, Illinois. The thing is, sometimes Nally knows best. The GPS will take weight limits and clearances into consideration when advising the best route.

We had an easy drive, rain notwithstanding, through western Illinois on IL125 to US67. Traffic was light and soon we broke out of the storm clouds as we headed west. But, there was a snag. Nally diverted us outside of Macomb and we were on county roads driving through farm fields. The roads were narrow with no shoulder. Luckily there wasn’t any traffic either. After a few turns and about 10 minutes or so, she had us back on US67. I’m guessing there was some obstruction or weight limit in the town of Macomb that we had to work around.

Narrow county road through corn fields

We crossed the Mississippi River into Iowa. While we’re now west of the Mississippi, I think most people would agree we’re still in the Midwest, not the West yet. When we cross the Missouri River, I’ll feel like we’re back in the western states.

This is corn country. All day we were driving with corn fields on both sides of the highway, broken up here and there with soy beans. We found the Walmart in Mt. Pleasant and parked in a level corner of the lot. Donna made a shopping run and stocked up the pantry. When we stop at a Walmart, Donna can take her time and really shop the aisles. She can buy whatever she wants without having to think about how much space she has for stuff in the Spyder – she just walks a full shopping cart out to our rig.

Even in town there are corn fields

After a quiet night in the Walmart lot, we hit the road Monday morning a little after 9am. Our destination was about 140 miles away – Griff’s Valley View RV Park in Des Moines. It was an easy route as we got on US34 from the Walmart parking lot and followed it west all the way to US65 into the east side of Des Moines. We stopped and fueled up at the Pilot/Flying J Travel Center a few miles from the RV park. It was only 11:30am, so we were early to arrive at the park.

There was a Blue Beacon truck wash next to the travel center, but it had a long line. We decided to join the queue since we were in no hurry. We were badly in need of a wash job. We’ve been traveling through wet weather for weeks on end without a wash and the coach was grimy. An hour later, were shiny and on our way.

After working around a couple of road closures, we found the RV Park. The park is owned and operated by the Griffieon family who also own a farm nearby. They run the park from an office at their farm. We were instructed to phone when we arrived at the park. Donna phoned and talked to Carol – she directed us into our site. It’s a paved 70-foot long back-in site. Plenty big enough for our size without dropping the trailer. But, I saw a problem. The 50-amp electrical service pedestal was located at the rear end of the site. With our trailer behind the coach, our power cord wouldn’t reach it.

Carol suggested dropping the trailer in a nearby area next to a garage. We found that parking area was already full of trailers. A guy working in the garage told us there was another parking area past our site. To get there, I needed to get us turned around. This wasn’t so easy. The park is laid out to allow entry and exit of big rigs, but the angle of the intersections make it impossible to get turned around when you’re heading out of the park. I drove out onto the county road in front of the park, went north about a mile where a dirt road intersected the county road. I was able to make a three-point turn there and re-enter the park. Whew!

We looked at the second parking area and found it full of trailers as well. Donna called Carol again and she told us to sit tight, Dave would come over to help us find a solution. By the time he arrived, I decided to unload the Spyder, back into the site and go buy a 50-amp extension cord.

Dave was really helpful and he told us to back in as far as possible and not worry about the trailer overhanging the lawn in back. As it turns out, we actually got in far enough for our cord to reach and got set up. Although we haven’t had the need for an extension cord much in the last five years, this was the second time in a month we had an issue with placement of the power pedestal. Once we were set up, I took the Spyder to Imperial RV Center about seven or eight miles away and bought a 15-foot 50-amp extension for $87. We’re okay without it right now, but if we have this issue again, I’ll be prepared.

Our site at Griff’s Valley View RV Park

On the way back from the RV store, I stopped at a roadside stand where a woman was selling fresh sweet corn in front of her farmhouse. The sign said “Sweet Corn $5.” I asked how much corn for five bucks and she said, “A dozen ears.” I said, “Oh no, too much.” She thought I meant five bucks was too much money for a dozen ears. I explained that there were only two of us and we couldn’t eat a dozen ears of corn in a reasonable amount of time. She gave me four ears of corn picked that morning for a dollar!

Griff’s Valley View RV Park is right on a bike trail. Donna was raring to go so I got her bike set up. While I was pumping up the tires, the presta valve on the rear tire broke. I removed the rear wheel and pulled the tire off. I had tubes and a pair of new tires on hand, so I put a new rear tire on while I was at it. Man, those Continental Gatorskin tires have stiff beads. It was a workout to seat the bead on the rim.

Donna rode out of the park and headed northeast on the Chichaqua Valley Trail. This is a paved multi-use trail from Baxter to Berwick – about 26 miles. It intersects with other trails into Des Moines, so biking from the RV park is convenient.

Later, I got the Weber Q grill out of the trailer while Donna prepped a steelhead trout filet with a mayonnaise based topping. I grilled the trout and Donna sauteed fresh mushrooms with bacon pieces to top a baked potato. She also cooked the corn on the cob. It was a delicious meal and the corn was the best we’ve had in a long time.

Steelhead trout, baked potato with mushrooms and bacon and sweet corn on the cob

After dinner, we sat outside and enjoyed the evening. It’s very quiet here at night. We saw a lightning show in a thunderhead off in the distance but it stayed calm and dry here. The forecast for the coming week looks good with mostly sunny skies and temps reaching the low 80s.

 

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to 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!

 

Youghiogheny Confluence

The thunderstorms predicted for Monday morning held off as we prepared to hit the road. We pulled out of Artillery Ridge Camping Resort in Gettysburg in dry conditions around 10am. Our route took us south on US15 into Maryland. We straddled the Mason-Dixon line and crossed between Maryland and Pennsylvania a couple of times. We were mostly on quiet state routes – these are generally slower and took us through some small towns and villages, but we enjoy the scenery much more than most Interstates. Besides, I didn’t want to pay tolls on I-70 in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has the highest fuel taxes in the country yet they still collect tolls!

The route through the Appalachian Mountains was hilly with some very steep grades. Most of the grades were fairly short and topped out around 1,300 feet above sea level. Eventually we ran into the thunderstorms. Thankfully we didn’t have to contend with much wind, but at times the visibility was extremely poor. Even though it was raining, there was a mist in the air as we approached the summits – almost foggy.

Our destination for the day was a Corps of Engineers park near Confluence, Pennsylvania by the dam on the Youghiogheny River. The small town is called Confluence because it sits right at the confluence of the Casselman River and the Youghiogheny River.

Donna had reserved a site for us at the park before we left Gettysburg that morning. We arrived around 1:30pm and checked in. Our site is a 60-foot back-in. With a little maneuvering, I was able to fit our 64-foot length completely in the site without dropping the trailer.

Coach and trailer angled to fit in site 39

We’re within 100 yards of the banks of the Youghiogheny at the outflow area of the dam.

Youghiogheny River Outflow

There are only 30 sites in this campground. We were lucky to get a long site here. It only has 30-amp electric service, no water or sewer. I had dumped our tanks and filled the fresh water before we left Gettysburg. Once I had our rig into the site, we discovered we had a problem. The 30-amp pedestal is at the rear of the site. Our power cord isn’t long enough to reach it. I was about to drop the trailer and reposition the coach when a neighbor stopped by. He saw us trying to hook up and asked me how much cord we needed to reach the pedestal. I told him we were about 10 feet short. He said he had a 30-amp extension cord he could lend us. Nice! That worked.

The campground is full, but it’s fairly quiet. There’s a bicycle/hiking trail along the river called Great Allegheny Passage. We saw several bicyclists stopping for the night to use the showers and tent camp here. Donna hiked a portion of the trail into town in the afternoon. She met a gal riding the full length of the trail from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC.

There’s a siren that sounds when they release additional water from the Youghiogheny River Lake behind the dam. This morning, they released water into the outflow at 6am and the siren sounded. So much for morning quiet time.

After breakfast, I retrieved Donna’s road bike from the trailer and pumped up her tires. She rode up the trail past Confluence and through the State Forest to the town of Ohiopyle. The Casselman River has a brown color while the Youghiogheny has blue-green color. Donna shot a photo of the confluence of the two rivers and you can clearly see the difference as the Casselman joins the Youghiogheny.

Casselman River joining the Youghiogheny

The Youghiogheny flows northwest all the way to the Monongahela River near Pittsburgh. Below are a couple of photos Donna took of the trail.

Great Allegheny Passage

Bridge on the trail

We were only able to book two nights here, so we’ll continue our westward trek tomorrow. The weather forecast looks good with light winds and no precipitation for the next two days. We’ll figure out our next stop along the way.