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Back to the Bay

My last post described my trailer electrical connector repair on Friday. We closed out the day with dinner over at the gazebo again. Donna prepared beef ragu served over whole wheat spaghetti. She added some extra fresh herbs and crushed red pepper and it came out even better than usual.

Donna working her magic on the induction cooktop

It was pleasant dining outside. Although the dry camping sites are cramped, having this sitting area is nice. There are many amenities at Jojoba Hills and we really like this place. There are hiking paths with sitting areas around small ponds, pickleball courts, a great swimming pool with a beautiful view, a clubhouse that they named Friendship Hall and a well-stocked library.

Dining al fresco at the gazebo

We started the day Saturday with pickleball games once again. After lunch, we headed to the pool to read and soak in the sunshine. We sat in lounge chairs on the south side of the pool. Twenty minutes of direct sun was all I could take. I moved to the shady north side of the pool and read for over an hour while Donna stayed in her lounge chair. She took a dip in the pool to cool off. Even with SPF 30 sunscreen, she ended up with some sunburn.

Donna’s view from the south side of the pool

I moved into the shade – Donna is in the second chair from the right

On Sunday morning, I got to work on the hot water heater. I shut off the water pump, opened the hot water kitchen sink and bathroom faucets and went outside. I removed the anode rod from the hot water tank and drained the tank. I didn’t see any debris come out of the tank. The 1-1/6″ socket I bought to install the new anode rod was the right size for the new rod. But it didn’t fit the adapter I had to remove from the tank. I assumed the adapter was the same size hex as the new rod. You know what they say about assuming. So, once again I re-installed the old anode rod and refilled the tank. The hot water flow was still restricted.

I gave up on that task and loaded the trailer in preparation for travel. Meanwhile, Donna was out on the pickleball court. She came back around 10am and showered at the park showers before prepping the inside of the coach for travel. That’s how we work it – she preps the interior while I load the trailer, dump the tanks and take care of the outside work. We were ready to pull the slides in and light the fires at 11:30am. Fifteen minutes later, we were on the road again.

We drove west on CA79 (which is technically a north/south route) through Temecula and took I-15 south to San Diego where we hit CA163. I pulled off CA163 at the Balboa Avenue exit. I remembered a Chevron station on the corner of Balboa and Mercury Street where we were able to get the coach in and out without any fuss. There was a problem though. The exit for Balboa Avenue doesn’t really come out on Balboa. It exits onto southbound Mercury Street near the Balboa intersection. There is an island dividing Mercury Street and I couldn’t access the Chevron station. So we turned east on Balboa Avenue, crossed CA163 and drove about a mile before I could turn around in an industrial park. Coming back west on Balboa I had easy access to the fuel station. Problem solved.

I put 49 gallons of fuel in the tank at $2.89/gallon. As usual, I treated the fuel with Biobor JF. I wanted to have the fuel tank as full as possible before sitting at Mission Bay for a month to help prevent condensation in the fuel tank. The rest of the drive was uneventful and we pulled into Mission Bay RV Resort at 1:45pm.

After checking in, Donna and I walked to the overflow parking area to reconnoiter a spot for the trailer. Nearby Mission Bay Park was teeming with people. The grassy areas were filled with EZ-Up canopies, volley ball games and barbeques. The beach at the RV park was also full of people. Apparently many of them parked in the RV overflow lot and the lot was full. This was a problem for us. Mission Bay RV Park requires us to leave our cargo trailer in the lot.

We talked to the security guy at the guard gate. He suggested leaving the trailer in the lot behind the office. I told him that wouldn’t happen, because the last time I did that, Dirty, Rotten Thieves stole my trailer and all of its contents. We found an open spot in the overflow lot that wasn’t really a marked parking space, but the trailer would fit. The security guy agreed to let us park it there temporarily. We would have to move it later when the crowd thinned out. We dropped the trailer and moved into site 112.

Our friends Bob and Sini Schmitt from Edmonds, Washington are in a site a few spaces away from us. This proved to be fortuitous. Bob has a vintage Chevy K5 Blazer with a trailer hitch. He let us use it to move the trailer after legal parking spaces had opened up in the lot. We scored a primo parking space. Close to the water with a no parking zone behind the trailer. This will make it easy to transport the kayak to the water with no worries of someone parking too close behind the trailer. I need to be able to open the rear ramp door for access to the kayak and bicycles and for re-loading the trailer when we leave.

Our home for the next month

When I got up this morning, I noticed that the ground was wet. I thought it was the normal dampness found along the beaches and bays in the morning at this time of year. Donna said a a light rain started falling just after she got up at 7am. It’s dry now though. We should see a high temperature in the mid 60s today. We have a few errands to run. I also need to find an RV technician who can solve the hot water issue.

Temecula Connections

After I posted yesterday, we grilled chicken for dinner. I used the brick method I described in this post. Donna had two large chicken breasts with bones and skin on. They came out great – the brick method works so well.

Brick-grilled chicken breast

We took our plates and utensils to the gazebo located about 100 feet from our coach. There are tables and comfortable chairs there between the fine arts and pottery studios. The weather was perfect – temperature in the low 70s with a light breeze.

Donna at the dinner table in the gazebo

After dinner, the sunset over the Temecula Valley was nice with just enough clouds to give it color.

Sunset over the Temecula Valley

We waited until 8am to get out of bed this morning because generators aren’t allowed before 8am. We needed to run the generator to brew coffee in our Keurig machine. The Keurig doesn’t like the modified sine wave from the inverter – our generator provides a pure sine wave electrical current.

After coffee and cereal, we rode the scooter up to the pickleball courts. They have four courts here that run from sideline to sideline on the tennis court. It makes for a lot of lines on the courts. For pickleball, we only pay attention to the blue painted lines. There were 17 players at the court when we arrived. There was a mix of abilities with a few very good players on the courts. One of the guys competed in the USAPA National Championship event.

Donna and I played a few games and had fun. They generally play here from 8am to 10am, so we’ll have to get there earlier tomorrow.

After playing pickleball, I rode the scooter to Temecula. It’s about a 14-mile ride northwest on CA79. The traffic moves along at 60 mph on CA79, so it was a brisk ride. I went to an auto parts store and found a new flat-four trailer electrical connector. I also bought butt connectors and a crimping tool. I found a 1-1/16″ deep socket for the water heater repair. While I was in town, I stocked up on beer and found my favorite Blue Ice American Potato vodka.

When I returned, I replaced the electrical connector on the trailer. The old connector had damaged pins. I must have stepped on it or maybe rolled the front trailer jack tire over it. I’ll be more careful of the cord and connector in the future.

Old connector with damaged pins

New connector with nice, round pins

I cut the old connector from the harness and prepared the new connector. First I cut the wires to a shorter length – I didn’t need the 24″ length that came with the new connector. Then I stripped the wire ends and crimped butt connectors onto the new part.

Butt connectors crimped into place

Next I stripped the wire ends on the trailer harness and crimped the open end of the butt connectors to the harness.

All crimped together

The last step was to seal each butt connector individually with tape. Then I wrapped all of the butt connectors and wires together with tape to reinforce it.

Final wrap reinforces the butt connectors

That’s it, job done. I checked the trailer lights and all is good.

I’ve decided to leave the water tank repair until Sunday morning. We’re dry camped and if I start on it now, I will lose a minimum of 10 gallons of water. We should have plenty of fresh water on board but why chance it. There are showers a few hundred feet from our site.

Hot Water Woes

Tuesday was a farmers’ market day at Golden Village Palms RV Resort. After pickleball in the morning, Donna and I joined Dave and Stilla Hobden (Urbanescapevehicle.com) and walked to west parking area near the entrance to the park. There were only a few vendors there – the season has really wound down in Hemet. Since the park was 75% Canadian visitors for the winter and most of them are heading home now, the population of the park has really dropped. We still found a few things we couldn’t go without. I bought a jar of raw wildflower honey. Donna bought half a dozen tamales from the same vendor that was at the pool on Saturday. She also bought salsa and lemons. Dave and Stilla also bought tamales for a late lunch. We already had lunch so Donna refrigerated our tamales for consumption later.

Donna and Stilla checking out the vendor tables

Tamale lady at the farmers’ market

We enjoyed another happy hour together with much conversation. Dave and Stilla’s dog, Coach, had some kind of episode in the afternoon, maybe an epileptic seizure. They kept watch on him indoors after dinner.

On Wednesday morning, I hit the pickleball courts and played for over three hours. It was my last chance at Golden Village Palms as we would pull out on Thursday. I came back in time to see Dave and Stilla off – they wanted to make it back to Casa Grande in time to visit family over Easter weekend. I gave Dave directions to the rock garden in the desert. It’s halfway from Hemet to Casa Grande and a good stopping point for the night. Later, I saw on Facebook that he found it and was parked in the exact spot we occupied the week before. (Their dog seems to be doing okay now.)

I forgot to mention the raucous crows that were in the park Wednesday morning. They woke Donna and me up at the crack of dawn with their constant crowing. Later I saw they left calling cards on the side of our coach and also on the windshield cover. Big bird dung bombs. In the afternoon I removed the window covers and cleaned them and also cleaned the coach.

Before we left Mesa, I ordered an anode rod for our 10-gallon Suburban water heater. The anode rod is a sacrificial metal rod made from aluminum or magnesium and screws into the hot water tank. The rod will corrode over time, preventing corrosion of the tank itself. I wanted to replace ours since I wasn’t certain of its age, but I knew it was over a year old now since we’ve had this coach that long. I didn’t get around to it before we left Mesa and I put it off in Casa Grande as well.

On Wednesday afternoon, Donna told me we had a water pressure problem. After a checking it out, I realized that we didn’t have a water pressure problem, we had a hot water flow issue. I removed the aftermarket anode rod from our tank. This rod has an adapter to fit the original threads but uses a smaller diameter threaded rod. I turned off the hot water heater and removed the rod. It was heavily corroded and coming apart. Apparently chunks of the rod material were plugging up the hot water line. I flushed the hot water tank and found many chunks from the corroded rod. I couldn’t fit the Suburban replacement rod into the water tank because I couldn’t get the adapter used on the aftermarket rod out of the tank. I need to buy a 1-1/16″ deep socket to remove it. So I re-installed the failing rod and refilled the tank. We have better hot water flow now, but it’s still not right.

On Thursday morning, I packed the trailer and loaded the scooter. We had everything packed away, slides in and jacks up by 11:30am. We planned to move to the Escapees park in Aguanga called Jojoba Hills. We stayed there last September and loved the place. They don’t take reservations, but you can call ahead to check on availability. We were surprised to find no vacancy! The only thing we could do there is dry camp in the boondocking area. We’re only staying for three nights, so we opted to boondock.

When I hooked up the trailer, I couldn’t get the four-prong electrical connector plugged in. I saw one of the prongs was smashed. I either accidentally stepped on it or rolled the front trailer jack wheel over it! I messed around for about 10 minutes before I could get it connected. We checked the brake lights and turn signals and they work, but I don’t trust the connection. Still, there was nothing I could do about it as we needed to check out by noon.

We drove out of the park south on Sanderson and stopped at Walmart. Donna and I had lunch at the Farmer Boys restaurant – a sort of upscale fast food hamburger joint. The food was okay, but a bit over-priced. Then Donna went grocery shopping while I sat in the coach and read a book. After about 45 minutes, I remembered that I wanted to get propane for the Weber Q grill. I went into Walmart and bought four propane canisters and also picked up a gallon of Chevron Delo 400 15w-40 oil – it was under $12! I wanted to have it on hand for our cross-country run after we leave San Diego next month.

From there we continued south on Sage Road (CR3) through many tight curves and switchbacks to CA79. We went east on CA 79 a few miles and found Jojoba Hills – the entire trip was all of 30 miles.

Long narrow dry camping site at Jojoba Hills

Tomorrow I’ll scooter over to Temecula and buy a 1-1/16″ deep socket to fix the water heater tank and also a new flat four-prong plug for the trailer.

Tight – or Cozy?

We’re having a heat wave in the southwest. The high temperature surpassed 90 degrees for the past two days and the forecast calls for two more days of 90 degree plus temperatures before it drops to a more normal 80 degrees here in Hemet, California.

On Friday morning, before the heat became too intense, I played a few games of pickleball. In the afternoon, I rode the scooter into town and had a look around. I found a Harbor Freight Tool store. I stopped there and bought a pop-rivet tool. I noticed when I was removing the windshield shade that one of the twist-lock fasteners was missing a rivet. Pat must have gotten distracted when he was installing them and missed one. I used to have a pop-rivet tool and an assortment of rivets, but when those Dirty, Rotten Thieves stole our trailer, all of my tools were taken. I have replaced many of the tools and continue to add tools as needed.

Yesterday Donna came to the pickleball courts and played a few games. She can’t play at full speed yet, but she was able to hold her own playing against novice-level opponents. I ended up playing for more than three hours. I think I was dehydrated when I came home. I couldn’t get enough water and I took an hour-long nap!

In the evenings here, Donna and I enjoy sitting in the shade under the canopy outside and having cocktails. As the sun starts to set in the west, the temperature in the shade is agreeable. The air here is very dry – the humidity is under 10%. Last night, Donna discovered that we have an orange tree on the other side of our cargo trailer. Another gal we met on the pickleball courts told us that they have a grapefruit tree on their site. We’ll have to arrange a trade!

One of our neighbors, Stu, stopped by to chat. He saw us pull in and said he’s inspired now to pull a cargo trailer behind his motorhome. He didn’t do it before because he was told he’d never be able to reverse without jack-knifing the trailer. He was amazed at how I was able to place our trailer on the paved parking spot. I told him it can be a little tricky with the trailer pivoting on a ball 11 feet behind the rear axle. The trick is to go slow and not over correct with the steering wheel. It also helps to have Donna outside with a handheld CB radio directing me. I use her eyes, the rearview camera and mirrors to monitor my progress and take my time. I mentioned in Friday’s post how tight these sites are. Here are photos of our site, number 567, in Golden Village Palms RV Resort.

Happy hour under the canopy

Shrubs separating the sites don’t leave much room for slides

Three quarters of the people in this park are from Canada. Many of them have been here all winter and are starting to head for home. With three large swimming pools and fewer people in the park, pool time should be great. Yesterday a vendor was at the pool selling home made Mexican food. I bought half a dozen tamales for lunch. They were excellent!

Today, Donna and I are planning to ride the scooter down to Sun City (Menifee) to visit my step-dad Ken. We can take back roads and avoid scootering on I-215. I don’t think it will take more than half an hour to get there. I’ll set up the DVR to record the Moto GP and Formula One races today while we are out. We’ll make a pitstop at the supermarket before returning to the park. Donna is planning to hang out at the pool and read while I watch the races.

Salton Sea

We rolled out from the rock garden in the desert about 9:30am yesterday. The desert was already heating up. Our route took us west on I-8 to El Centro, where we turned north on CA111. We followed CA111 to Brawley, then continued on CA86 in a northwesterly direction.

This route took us along the west side of the Salton Sea. The current iteration of the Salton Sea was formed by accident in an area of the desert directly over the San Andreas Fault called the Salton Sink. The sea is believed to have formed and drained many times over thousands of years. In 1905, engineers from the California Development Company built irrigation canals from the Colorado River. In an effort to reduce silt built up, a cut was made in the bank of the Colorado River, increasing flow to the canals. The canals flooded out of control and the Salton Sink, which is a basin only five feet higher than the lowest point in Death Valley, began filling with water. Water flowed into the basin for two years, forming the Salton Sea. The surface of the Salton Sea is 234 feet below sea level.

The Salton Sea is the largest lake in California. It’s fed by the New, Whitewater and Alamo Rivers. The water in it is saline and the salt content is greater than that of the Pacific Ocean, but not as high as the Great Salt Lake. Due to changes in water rights under the Quantification Settlement Agreement of 2003, the water level in the Salton Sea is expected to decrease.

As we drove along the west side of the lake, the wind was coming from the east. The large body of water cooled the air significantly and travel with the front windows open was comfortable.

Salton Sea viewed from Donna’s passenger side window

As we cruised along CA86, traffic was confined to one lane at one point and I saw brake lights ahead. It was a Border Patrol check station. We saw one car pulled aside into the vehicle search area, but we were waved straight through without stopping.

Border Patrol check station

We stopped for lunch in Mecca on the north side of the Salton Sea, then continued on to I-10 near Indio. We could see snow on the San Gabriel mountains in the Big Bear area. The drive west on I-10 is a deceptively steep climb to Banning. It was hot out, but our coolant temperature never exceeded 195 degrees.

We turned south at Beaumont and took CA79 to Hemet where we found the Golden Village Palms RV Resort. The sites here include a paved parking space, a concrete patio pad and a gravel RV lot. It sounds spacious, but in reality it’s quite tight. Donna directed me while I backed the cargo trailer into the paved parking spot. I dropped the trailer, then maneuvered the coach into the gravel area that’s bordered by shrubs. It was barely wide enough to put the slides out.

By the time I cleaned the bugs off the windshield and installed the front window shades, it was 4pm and time to kick back with a cold one. Our site faces north, putting the door and awning side on the east, providing afternoon shade. We grilled salmon for dinner and dined al fresco. It was a pleasant evening to sit outdoors.

Palms in the sunset at the RV park

I’m getting to the blog late today because I spent the morning on the pickleball courts. There are some really good players here. I started with a group that was playing at a higher level than me at first. Then I joined a group of players that were closer to my level of play. It was fun and I spent all morning at it.

I think I’ll go out and explore the area this afternoon on the scooter.

Shaken in the Desert

We started our last day at Casa Grande RV Resort with a free waffle breakfast at the clubhouse yesterday. We sat at a table with a couple from Camano Island, Washington. I asked them if they knew Ed and Martha King who also live there. They didn’t know them, but they were surprised that I knew where Camano Island is.

After breakfast, I loaded the trailer. I did the usual dump and flush of the tanks and we took our time getting ready for the road. We said our goodbyes to Bill and Cris Filby from Stanwood, Michigan who stopped over to wish us safe travels. Gayle Devall from Ontario also stopped by to say goodbye. We always meet the nicest people as we travel. We drove out of the park at 11am.

I headed south on Pinal Avenue (AZ387) figuring it would intersect with I-8. I followed a sign directing me west on AZ84 (also called the Gila Bend Highway). This turned out to be a better route than jumping straight on I-8. We drove west through farmland. Several miles later, the road curved to the southwest at the junction with AZ347. That’s when I realized what road we were on. We’ve traveled down AZ347 from the Wildhorse Pass Casino before when we rode our motorcycles from Mesa to San Diego. This was a good route – a few miles later we were on I-8 westbound.

Our first stop was at 12:30pm at Gila Bend. I remembered a Subway sandwich shop at a big truck stop there. The truck stop had ample parking, so getting in and out was easy. We found out that they also have a small RV park in back with full hook-ups. Our next stop was another 40 miles down the road. We stopped at Dateland. Dateland is a small community at exit 67 with a specialty shop selling – wait for it – dates! We parked across the street in an abandoned gas station and walked over for date shakes. These are one of Donna’s favorite treats. Donna also bought a few items in the shop to use as gifts later.

We continued on to Yuma where I stopped again at Fortuna Road to top off our fuel tank at the Pilot/Flying J station. I wanted to have the tank full of fuel when we entered California. Fuel is more expensive in California. We took on 35 gallons of fuel at $2.50/gallon. We drove a couple of miles to Walmart from there to stock up on groceries. The Walmart lot had a number of trees with low branches. I had no choice in a few spots but to drive through them. I was not happy about that!

After we crossed the California border, we had to go through an inspection station. We stopped at the kiosk and the Border Patrol agent asked if we had fresh fruit on board. Since the grapefruits and lemons we had were at least a week old, I didn’t consider them fresh and answered, “No.” He waved us through. It was 4:30pm by then. Our stops along the way had slowed our progress, but it was all right. I didn’t want to stop for the day in the heat of the afternoon anyway. I had the generator running and roof air conditioners on since leaving Walmart. It was 91 degrees outside.

We found our way to our favorite boondocking spot near the Imperial Sand Dune Recreation Area. The area we’re in is actually called the Picacho Recreation Area. It’s BLM land and you can dry camp for up to 14 days with no fee. We’ve stayed here twice before.

The last time we stayed here, I posted about the rock garden in the desert. We found the rock garden and the site was empty. We only saw two rigs in the area and the rock garden was more than a quarter of mile away from them. We set up quickly and enjoyed a cocktail outside in the shade.

Happy hour in the desert

Donna asked for something she hasn’t had in a quite a while. I mixed one part fresh squeezed lemon juice with two parts vodka and a dash of cayenne pepper in a shaker over ice. I shook it vigorously and served it in a martini glass. This drink is called a Holland Razor Blade. I made my usual vodka martini, shaken not stirred, garnished with a tomolive.

Donna enjoying a Holland Razor Blade in the shade

We relaxed and took in the view. Despite the temperature, we were quite comfortable thanks to the dry air and a light breeze.

View to the east from our site

We sat outside until dark and looked at the starry sky. There was more light at the Imperial Dunes area than I expected.

Desert sunset last night

This morning I was up early. We had a very windy night – it interrupted my sleep several times as it shook the coach. I’m sure it will catch up with me later, but at 6:30am I was wide awake and decided to get out of bed.

Our site shortly after sunrise

Today we’ll get back on I-8 westbound and drive to El Centro where we’ll turn north on CA111. We have about 200 miles ahead of us before we reach Hemet.

Between Here and San Diego

They are pretty serious about pickleball here at Casa Grande RV Resort. I’ve played for a few hours every morning for five days straight. On Saturday, Donna and I went out for an evening walk and found people playing on the lighted courts. It was mostly the same group that plays in the morning – they were playing twice a day! No wonder there are so many good players here.

Two of the blogs I follow had similar themes recently. Nina Fussing (Wheeling It) wrote about their top six “incidents” on the road. Then Clarke Hockwald (What’sNewell) wrote about “when, not if,” things go sideways. Wouldn’t you know it, we had an “incident” Sunday night. I wanted to watch Wicked Tuna, so I turned on the satellite and TV. When I turned on the audio amplifier, I had no sound. I thought this was odd. I noticed the radio in the dashboard had a blank display. I thought a fuse may have blown and the radio and amplifier weren’t receiving 12 volts from the chassis batteries. The audio amplifier is on the chassis circuit, not the house 12-volt circuit. I think Western RV wired it this way so that when you’re driving down the road, listening to the in-dash radio which also goes through the audio amplifier, it wouldn’t be drawing current from the house batteries. Like Clarke said, “It’s when, not if things go sideways.”

After checking fuses, I got my multi-meter out and went outside to check the batteries. Oh no! The chassis batteries only showed 7 volts. Something had drawn the battery down. I looked around and found that I had neglected to turn off the CB radio. It doesn’t draw much current, but five days of continuous parasitic draw had killed my chassis batteries. I put a charger on the batteries right away. By Monday morning, they were up to 12.8 volts. I’m sure damage has been done. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hope they can hold an acceptable level of charge.

Donna hoped she might be ready to play pickleball on Saturday, but in doing a couple of squats to test her readiness, she aggravated the muscle pull in her groin. She had been trying to stay active by walking, but even that’s more than is comfortable right now. The afternoons have been clear and very warm with the temperature approaching 90 degrees. We’ve relaxed most afternoons and have been running the air conditioners. It cools at night – the temperature dropped to the low 50s last night.

Sharon, one of the pickleball players, organized a happy hour gathering at the courtyard by the clubhouse yesterday. Everyone brought hors d’oeuvres which really turned out to be dinner. There was a lot of food and we enjoyed hanging out for a couple of hours and talking with different people.

Happy hour with the pickleball group

Donna and I were trying to figure out what our plan is for the 12 open days we have between our check out day here and check in at Mission Bay RV Resort in San Diego. We thought about extending our stay in Casa Grande, but we really felt like moving on. Donna found a special offer at a high-end RV resort in Hemet, California. The full price rate for a week-long stay at Golden Village Palms RV Resort runs from $336 to $546 – way more than we usually pay. The special deal Donna found was for first time visitors to the resort. We reserved a site for one week for $199. It’s a true RV resort with all the amenities – three swimming pools, hot tubs, fitness center, pickleball courts and more. They have a concert series as well featuring artists such as the Eagles, Shania Twain and Tim McGraw, and Jimmy Buffet. Unfortunately, we missed their winter concert season.

We’ll pull out of here tomorrow. Our plan is stop in Yuma for fuel and groceries, then head west and spend a night in the desert. From there, we’ll travel up through El Centro on highway 111 past the Salton Sea and through the Coachella Valley to Hemet. We’ll cover about 200 miles per day and check in Thursday afternoon. After our week in Hemet, we can spend a few days at the Escapee’s Jojoba Hills park before we head down to Mission Bay. That’s our plan – we’ll see how it works out.

Two for One in Casa Grande

We’ve settled in at the Casa Grande RV Resort. It’s relatively quiet. We’re near a busy road but it’s nowhere as noisy as our location in Mesa.

When we visited the Casa Grande ruins and arrived here on Wednesday, we dodged a few rain showers. The rain continued Thursday through most of the day with a few breaks here and there. I left the scooter and grill in the trailer until Thursday afternoon when the skies started to clear a bit. I mentioned in my last post how accommodating the management was here at Casa Grande RV Resort. They gave us two back-to-back sites for the price of one so we wouldn’t have to drop our trailer!

Spacious site(s) 310/305

Donna made meatloaf for dinner. Her meatloaf is always sensational – I think it’s mainly due to the way she manages to get the meat really fine by “whisking” it with a fork. I enjoyed a bottle of Rough Draft Eraser IPA with dinner.

Rough Draft Eraser IPA

Meatloaf served with steamed Kale and bacon and mashed sweet potato

Meatloaf served with steamed kale and carmelized bacon and mashed sweet potato

The skies were partly cloudy with cooler weather on Friday. I think the high was in the lower 70s. I went to the pickleball courts in the morning. They have four courts here. When I arrived, all four courts had games in progress and 11 people were waiting to play. They have a good system here to rotate players in. There’s a rack for paddles. Placing your paddle in the rack serves as a placeholder. When a game is finished, all four players leave the court. The next four paddles in line are retrieved by their owners and that makes up the next foursome. I played several games and I’m beginning to move better now. I still have some tightness in my right leg, but it’s definitely improving.

On Friday evening, Donna prepared green chili turkey burgers. They’re really good, but these have been bothersome to grill in the past. The turkey burgers tend to fall apart because of the wetness of the diced green chilis in them. So I tried something different this time. I used a grill mat on our Weber grill and it worked perfectly. Now I just have to figure out how to clean the grill mat.

Grill mat on our Weber grill

The clouds had moved to the east while I was grilling. I shot a photo of the sunset reflecting off the clouds looking east from our site.

Sunset reflecting off the clouds in the east

Donna has been taking walks for exercise while her road rash heals. She pulled a groin muscle when she crashed and that’s preventing her from jumping back into pickleball. But her injuries are getting better every day.

We had warmer weather on Saturday. I started the day with pickleball again. Donna continued formatting one of her books which she recently updated and will re-release shortly. I had a lazy day. I spent most of the afternoon reading another Vince Flynn thriller – Protect and Defend. I managed to break away from relaxation time long enough to replace the filter bag in the central vacuum cleaner system and try it out. We haven’t been using the central vacuum cleaner, just our Dyson DC44 cordless vacuum. Donna wanted to try the central vacuum cleaner so I got it up and running. It seems to work really well.

Central vacuum cleaner

In the afternoon, we joined our neighbors, Bill and Cris Filby for happy hour. They are snowbirds from Michigan planning to go full-time soon. Right now they have a fifth-wheel RV, but they’re planning to move to a 40′ motor home when they hit the road full-time. They are also avid pickleball players and provide lessons for new players.

This morning I went to the pickleball courts early. I was there by 8:30 and played for three hours! I’m whipped. We expect the temperature to reach the mid-80s today. It looks like another good day for rest and relaxation.

The Great House

We moved yesterday. We took a little longer than usual to hit the road. I had to finish packing the trailer, clean up a few things outside, then dump and flush our holding tanks. Donna worked inside, getting the coach ready to ramble down the road. She moved a little slower than she usually does, but she managed to get everything put away. Lowell and Debi, Donna’s hiking friends, and Vern and Sylvia, our neighbors, stopped by to wish us safe travels. By the time we had the trailer hooked up and pulled out of Orangewood Shadows, it was 11:30am.

Our route took us east on US60 past Gold Canyon. The drive to Gold Canyon, which took over an hour by car through last weekend’s traffic, was covered in 30 minutes in the coach. As we continued east, I realized I had forgotten to lock the basement storage doors. I like to have the doors locked when we roll down the road as extra insurance against one accidentally opening. The traffic was light, so when we turned on to AZ79, I pulled to the shoulder and stopped to lock the basement doors.

AZ79 took us to the town of Florence. Established in 1866, Florence is the county seat of Pinal County and one of the oldest towns in Arizona. It’s also home to the largest prison complex in the state. We made a stop at the Mt. Athos restaurant in Florence, a Greek restaurant that Donna and I stopped at a couple of times before when we traveled through on motorcycles. I found parking on the street a half block away and we went in for lunch. I opted for the grilled cheese and bacon sandwich special. It was okay. Donna liked her Greek salad with gyro meat. They have moussaka, pastitio, spanokopita and other traditional Greek entrees on the menu. I probably should have ordered something Greek.

Mt Athos restaurant

After lunch, I drove west to the historic old downtown district where we picked up AZ287 and headed west toward Coolidge. Our next stop was at the Casa Grande Ruins. The focal point of this National Monument is the Great House (Casa Grande in Spanish) built in 1300AD. We found RV parking spaces in the lot in front of the park building.

Entry was $5 each as our America the Beautiful pass has expired (it would have gotten us in for free). The $5 entry included a guided tour which we took advantage of. The park ranger, Larry, was full of information and gave an interesting presentation as we walked around the Great House.

Historically, the people that once inhabited this compound were called Hohokam. There is a movement in the National Parks administration to discontinue this term (which loosely translates to vanished people) and replace it with Ancestral People of the Sonoran Desert. Apparently Hohokam can also be translated to mean “all used up” and is thought to be offensive. Another frequently used term for ancient tribes in the Sonoran desert is Anasazi. That term is also thought to be misused. The story is that early archeologists asked local Navajo people what the name of the tribe that once lived in the desert south of their land was. They answered Anasazi – which means ancestors of our enemy. The preferred term today Ancestral Puebloans.

The monument covers one square mile. I mentioned touring the compound. Although the Great House is the focal point, there are many ruins of smaller structures in the park. Our guide referred to it as an ancient gated community as it had a wall surrounding the dwellings. His theory was that this was a community of artisans, people that learned to spin and weave cotton, make jewelry and other items for trade. They stayed in a walled community to safely store their goods and keep the riff-raff out.

Wooden beams in the Great House have been scientifically dated to have originated in the early 1300s. This ancient civilization brought timber from the mountains up to 60 miles away and built dwellings from caliche – a sort of concrete made from sand, clay and calcium carbonate. They used tons of this material, shored up with the timbers to build the four-story Great House.

Great House viewed from the east

View inside the Great House through an opening in the wall

Donna in front of a smaller ruin in the compound

This civilization also practiced agriculture. They built canals to divert water from the Gila River to their fields of corn and cotton. Seven hundred years ago, the Gila River was a mighty watershed, not the dry riverbed it is today. Something happened by 1400AD and these people vanished.

In the 1800s, the stage coach from Florence to Tucson ran right next to the Great House. The stage would stop to rest their horses here. For a small fee, passengers were allowed to dig artifacts and take them. The site was abused for decades. Even after it was a protected archaeological site, many mistakes were made in recovering and documenting artifacts. Much of the history is lost forever. In 1932, a cover was built over the Great House to preserve and protect it from heavy rain and constant exposure to the sun.

This National Monument is an interesting stop and well worth the price of admission.

From the ruins, we drove west on AZ87, then followed AZ187 southwest to AZ387 south to the town of Casa Grande. By the way, the Casa Grande National Monument isn’t in the town of Casa Grande – it’s in Coolidge, Arizona. We checked in at the Casa Grande RV Resort where we stayed in early January. The park management was very accommodating. I asked for a pull-through site and told them I preferred not to drop the trailer. The issue here with the long pull-throughs is the location of the sewer and utilities. They’re located at the rear of the site. With the length of the trailer and our rig, it’s a long run for sewer, water and electrical power. They offered me a great solution. The had back-to-back sites intended for back-in use. They told me I could utilize both sites combined as a pull-through for the same price as a regular pull-through. Can’t beat that!

We’ll be here for a week while we decide on our next move.

St. Paddy’s at Orangewood

Donna was feeling sore and moving slowly on Monday. She had a dentist appointment at 9:40am and drove herself to the dentist office in Lana’s Toyota Highlander. Thankfully we still have Lana’s car and didn’t have to scooter over to the dentist office. That would have been a bit uncomfortable. After her dental appointment, Donna took pain medication. Unfortunately, the medication made her nauseous. So she took it easy for the rest of the day.

I resealed the seams on the left bedroom slide-out after a few games of pickleball. On Monday evening, we walked down to the grassy common area by the pickleball courts for the Orangewood Shadows memorial pizza dinner. Residents decorated luminaria bags memorializing those who have passed on. Since we’re newcomers to this park, we didn’t know the proper etiquette. We found a spot on the grass, set up our chairs and got in line for pizza. Then we figured out that we were set up in an area reserved for VIPs. I’m still not clear what constitutes an Orangewood Shadows VIP. We ate our pizza slices and decided to re-locate. The folks around us told us not to worry about it and stay where we were. We didn’t feel right, so we moved. Then we figured out that the grass had been divided into zones. They were calling people up to get in line for pizza by zone. Oh well, we didn’t mean to jump the line.

We sat with Jim, one of the guys we often play pickleball with, and met his wife Kay. We enjoyed their company and chatted for a while. We learned that they came to Orangewood for the first three years in a motorhome, then rented a park model for two years before deciding to buy one this year. All in all, 90 pizzas were served that night! Donna and I had two slices each, not a bad deal for a two-dollar ticket.

On Tuesday morning, I hit the pickleball court for the last time before we pull out of here. We quit early as the Orangewood Shadows St. Patrick’s Day parade was scheduled to begin at 10am. Some of the residents went all out for the parade. Donna and I sat in chairs in front of our site as the parade came by. It was fun.

Bagpipes

Our neighbor Al driving a golf cart converted to a fire engine

Orangewood Shadows band – our neighbor Brian in front with the saxophone

Another musical group from the park

After the parade, I started working on organizing the trailer. The longer we sit in one place, the more work it takes to get the trailer ready for travel. I removed the tire covers from the coach and checked the tire pressure. I also tackled another chore on my to-do list. I wanted to sanitize our fresh water tank and lines. It’s been more than a year since I’ve done this and I think it’s a good idea to make this an annual maintenance item.

The last time I sanitized the fresh water tank, I used household bleach. Two ounces per 15 gallons is the proper mixture. Household bleach has about 3% available chlorine. It also has other components that make it smell and taste awful. When I sanitized with bleach, I had to flush the stuff out of the system a couple of times and it still took a while before the odor was gone.

This time I used a chlorine concentrate called sodium dichlor. It’s available at pool supply stores. I bought a pound of granulated sodium dichlor at Leslie’s Pool for five bucks. It contains 62% available chlorine, so a little bit goes a long way. It only takes a teaspoon of sodium dichlor to treat 100 gallons of water. I put a teaspoon of sodium dichlor into the fresh water supply line and filled our fresh water tank with 100 gallons of water. The solution needs to be in the tanks for three hours or longer to ensure all bacteria are eliminated. I also opened all of the taps and shower head to distribute chlorinated water throughout the fresh water system. With the tank filled, Donna and I went to the recreation hall for the fish fry lunch.

The park was having its annual fish fry with Alaskan halibut, French fries and cole slaw. Our ticket also included our choice of beer or soda. They served a large plate of fish and chips. I managed to eat all of the halibut, but couldn’t eat all of the fries. The halibut was good!

Fish and chips plate

The fish fry lunch was running a little behind schedule. Apparently only two of the three fryers they rented were working. We had to scoot out of there so Donna could make it back to the dentist at 2pm. She had an appointment to have her retainer adjusted to fit the new crown that was put in on Monday.

After the dentist, I drove Donna to her friend’s house. Dara lives in Las Sendas a couple of miles from the dentist office. Dara is into essential oils and she had several she wanted to give to Donna to help her road rash heal. Dara and Donna sometimes ride together and she’s had her share of road rash. Some years back, she was hit by a car and seriously injured. She founded Not One More, a non-profit foundation committed to making roads safer for cyclists and helping those who have been injured to meet their medial and personal bills.

From Dara’s house, we drove to Lana’s to return her car. Lana dropped us back at the RV park. Lana also had my old laptop, which her fiance Joel had repaired. He took the laptop completely apart and replaced the cooling fan. It works like new. He said it was a difficult unit to disassemble. When I looked for someone to fix it, I was told the labor would be over $200. I paid Joel for the part – he fixed it gratis. Now I have a back-up laptop. Thanks, Lana and Joel, for your generosity.

I made one last trip to Lucky Lou’s to say my goodbyes to the gang. When I returned, I dumped the chlorinated water from the fresh water tank – it had been in there for nearly six hours. I had turned off the water heater earlier in the day. I dumped the water from the water heater and flushed it out. I refilled our fresh water tank and ran water through all of the taps. I can barely smell the chlorine. Sodium dichlor will be my method of choice from now on.

I made a few more preparations for our departure. I removed and stored our front window covers before I fired up the grill. I grilled Trader Joe’s chicken jalapeno sausages while Donna prepared creamy avocado cauliflower – steamed cauliflower blended with avocado, olive oil, garlic, lemon and parsley in the food processor. It paired perfectly with the sausage and the color was in the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day.

Non-traditional St Paddy’s Day fare

I have a few more things to load into the trailer before we kick the tires and light the fires. We’re heading back to Casa Grande.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Back to the Bay

Temecula Connections

Hot Water Woes

Tight – or Cozy?

Salton Sea

Shaken in the Desert

Between Here and San Diego

Two for One in Casa Grande

The Great House

St. Paddy’s at Orangewood

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