Tag Archives: Sangria (Franzia)

2014/12/26-31 (F-W) Wrapping Up 2014

Note: This post covers the last six days of 2014. It is long and there are no pictures. Sorry. 🙁

2014/12/26 (F) Cool Letters

When we woke up at 7 AM the temperature was 41 degrees F but by 8:30 it had dropped to 35. According to the Weather Channel app on our iPads we have a freeze warning posted for the overnight hours tonight (Saturday 0000-0800). The 12-day forecast is for an extended period of cooler temperatures with highs in the 50s and lows in the 30s, including a few nights near freezing, but that is normal for Q at this time of year. Desert regions are not always hot and actually experience an extreme range of temperatures. The forecast back home has lows dropping into the teens with one night forecast at 13 degrees F. Burrrrr.

Connie was apparently tracking the weather in Q as well, even though she and Joe are back in Nevada for most of the winter, as she called to ask me to turn the water off at the street if the temps got down to freezing. The city water system here has supply pipes that come straight up out of the ground near the street, turn horizontal, go through a valve, then through a pressure regulator or small meter (not sure which or both), go through another valve, and then turn 90 degrees and go back down into the ground. Joe and Connie keep all of this covered under a wooden box and we have noticed other properties doing the same thing, but not all. Although the temperatures here can/do drop below freezing in December and January it is never for more than a few hours just before sunrise.

Presumably the city water lines are deep enough to avoid ever having freezing problems, but I do not know how deeply the pipes are buried on Joe and Connie’s property. The main thing at risk are the stand pipes that come up out of the ground at each RV site and any hoses that are attached to them. I discussed all of this with Butch as it seemed to me that it would have to get below freezing and stay there for quite some time before we would have any problems. It also seemed to me that if we were going to turn the main water supply off we should open a faucet on each of the supply risers so the water would have somewhere to go as it expanded. (Water expands as it cools, reaching a maximum volume at around 34 degrees F. As it changes state from liquid to solid it actually contracts slightly in volume.) To be really safe we would need to drain all of the flexible hoses. That struck both of us as unnecessary.

The aisle lights did not work again last night. It’s always something with a RV and you have to be psychologically prepared for that or the lifestyle will drive you crazy. This problem has occurred before and the usual reason is that the (3-way?) switch by the dinette gets toggled and renders the push switch in the bedroom inoperative but that was not the case this time. One of the three wires that go to that switch was only attached by a few strands and broke when I checked it. None of the connectors are in good shape so repairing those connections moved to the top of my bus project list today. I did not get to this today, I only moved it to the top of my list.

While I made our morning coffee Linda put together an Amazon order. Amazon Prime has worked well for us and Butch has already successfully received a UPS shipment here, so it was easier to order a bag of Science Diet cat food for delivery to our bus than to deal with the limited hours and selection of the local veterinarian or drive to one of the larger surrounding cities in the hope that a pet supply store that might stock the specific formulation we feed our cats. She also ordered two bottles of Hach SofChek water hardness test strips and some additional silicon utensils.

Linda had our holiday letters stuffed and addressed on Christmas Eve, but not in time to get to the post office before it closed at noon, so she went today, bought stamps, and sent them on their way. Hopefully they will arrive by New Year’s Eve while folks are still in the holiday spirit.

Sometime during the morning we got a visit from missionaries of the (local) Jehovah’s Witnesses cult. Our conversation did not last long. After they left I was pondering this day after Christmas visit and it occurred to me that perhaps they do an inventory of Quartzsite and the surrounding BLM camping areas so they know when someone knew has pulled into town. I guess saving souls can be a lot of work.

Linda was doing the dishes and the Black & Decker SpaceMaker coffee carafe broke. She checked online and was going to order a generic replacement but decided she should check the model of our unit. When we lifted it up to look for the model number we discovered water on the shelf underneath it. Ugh. Suddenly we were no longer looking for a carafe but a new coffee maker. We removed the cabinet door, latch, and lower front retaining bar and pulled the unit out. I then removed the shelf, wiped it off, and took it outside to dry in the sun. There are definite advantages to being someplace with bright sunshine and low humidity.

We spent a long time researching a replacement. The particular model/style of SpaceMaker we have has not been made for years (of course), was only available used (naturally), and only for exorbitant prices (can you believe $300?) on Ebay. To add insult to injury all of the reviews were negative, noting in particular that the unit tends to develop leaks. Ya think? We looked instead for something we could install, or at least store, in the same cabinet cubby as the old one. Most of the countertop models were too tall and most of the built-ins and under cabinet models were too big, and very expensive. We ended up ordering a simple Proctor-Silex non-programmable countertop unit without a clock for under $20 on Amazon Prime so the price included the shipping. The reviews were good and it will store in the corner cabinet with room to spare for coffee canisters, freeing up space in the pantry for other things. We will have to take it out and set it on the counter to use it, but that’s OK.

As noted in a previous post, there are quite a few houses and RVs around town with Over-The-Air (OTA) TV antennas on top of 20-30 foot poles and pointed approximately NNE. There is one antenna in particular that we have seen a lot, a high-gain (directional) rotatable unit, and there are several vendors selling it as part of a kit. The unit has an integrated amplifier and rotor and includes the rotor controller and power supply, plus 50 feet of coax and control cables. All of the vendors are selling this kit for $70. That’s a lot of stuff for that price, which suggests something about its quality (not good). Another vendor is selling the poles and fittings that all of the other vendors use to build their “booths” (tents). They have a huge assortment of connectors and will cut the sections to length if asked. Getting the antenna 20-30 feet in the air would cost about $35. We have been pondering whether it is worth it to us to spend this money as our bus-mounted antennas have always worked in the past and this is the first place we have been where they will not pick up even a trace of a signal. We do not have an OTA TV antenna set up at home and it occurred to me that buying one here made more sense if it could be used back at the house. I spent quite some time online researching long-range DTV antennas but did not come to any conclusions.

I needed a break from working at my computer and drove over to K & B Tools to see if they had shorter poles. In the 1″ diameter they had 10′ and 8′. The 8′ length would work well for us. Three sections with two connectors would get an antenna 20-25 feet up depending on the mounting and we can store 8′ lengths in the front bay of the bus or in the car for transport. We would use a base section with a flange by the driver side mirror, put a couple of long spikes through the base to keep it from moving sideways, slip the bottom pole section in it, and bungee cord the next section to the mirror support arm after wrapping it with something to keep it from scratching the paint. Before making a purchase, however, I decided to do some more online research.

The unit being sold by several vendors is the Vortex HD from SewellDirect.com so I checked their website. The unit is discontinued and they are selling the same kit online for $25. That means the unit is of even cheaper construction than I originally thought and the $70 asking price suddenly seemed very excessive. Many of the online reviews confirmed that this was not a serious antenna. Another vendor had the Vortex and two competing units all for the same $70 price and I have concluded that they are all equally junk.

One of the websites I spent some time at was AntennasDirect.com. They appeared to have some serious antennas, with prices to match. One of the challenges in this situation is that it appears we need to pull in OTA TV signals from a very long way away here in Q (70+ miles), whereas at home the distances are more like 40 miles. Here in Q all of the signals appear to be coming from the same direction (although no one can explain why) so a high-gain, highly directional antenna is ideal and does not need to be rotated once it is aimed. At home the TV signals potentially come from 270 degrees and the correct solution is an antenna with a broader reception pattern combined with an accurate and repeatable rotor. If we do not need the rotor in Q we can forego that expense and technical complication until we get home.

One of the websites directed me to www.antennaweb.org. This site is sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). You enter your ZIP code, and optionally your address, and it tells you what TV stations you might be able to receive and what direction the towers are from your location. I put in the ZIP code for Quartzsite and it indicated five stations (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and Independent), all 11 miles away at 234.8 degrees. There are towers on top of a mountain in direction but they do not look like TV towers. The direction was also surprising as it is almost 180 degrees opposite to where everyone has their antennas pointed.

As we know from our ham radio hobby RF waves can do strange things. At the frequencies used for OTA Digital TV (DTV), however, things are “line-of-sight.” The local speculation is that there are “repeaters” to the NNE but if that was the case I would expect the website to indicate that as the signal direction. Another possible explanation is that the signals are coming over the mountains to the SW and bouncing off of the more distant mountains to the NE. I would expect some multi-path distortion in this case, as the signals scatter off the mountains and arrive at the antenna from different directions, but if the antenna is sufficiently directional it might eliminate this problem.

My plan for today had been to work on my Exterior Makeover article for Bus Conversion Magazine and I finally got started on that late in the afternoon. I finalized my selection of photos (I think) and split them up into those that will go in line with the article, print and digital, and those that will appear in the extra section of the digital edition. I had just begun post-processing them when Linda started preparing dinner. I have been wanting some pasta and tonight I finally got my wish. She made a whole wheat linguine with mushrooms, onions, garlic, kale, sun-dried tomatoes, and asparagus. What a treat.

I stopped over at Butch and Fonda’s bus to let them know about the www.antennaweb.org website. Butch was watching an archived webcast that Technomadia did a few months ago with Nina Fusing, of the WheelingIt blog, on health care options for full-time RVers. He had also installed Echolink software on his laptop but it was failing the Internet Connection test for UDP (User Datagram Protocol) ports. The error messages indicated that it was probably a firewall- and/or router-related problem. He had both so I tried opening UDP ports for forwarding in both places but it did not fix the problem. I have never played with Echolink or UDP ports, so I was trying to figure out what to do in real time. More research will obviously be needed.

I continued working after dinner processing photos for my article. I received my draft of the Zena Power Generating System article back from Gary with corrections made by Stacy, his new administrative assistant. I accepted them, made an additional correction, and returned it. They are trying very hard to get the December 2014 issue out on December 31st and my Zena article will be one of the four in that issue.

2014/12/27 (S) Cool Temps

By 6:30 this morning our various weather apps were reporting that the temperature in Q was 31 degrees F. At 7:00 I turned the thermostats up and climbed back in bed (electric heating pad). I had not shut the main water supply off at the street last night so at 7:30 I got up, put on my “sweats,” grabbed a jacket, and went outside to tend to the water. I cracked opened a faucet at each standpipe, ran water through hoses, and ran water through the hot and cold lines for both sinks in the apartment. I shut everything off and went back inside where it was comfortably warm.

By the time I came back in Linda was up and making coffee. How was that possible? We have a single serving coffee funnel that sits on top of a mug. It’s designed for cone filters but she simply folded one of our flat bottom filters and made it fit. She ground up some beans, boiled some water in the microwave oven, poured it over the grounds, and let it drip. I did not think we would have morning coffee in the coach again until the new coffee maker arrived next week so it was a nice treat.

I finished yesterday’s blog post while I enjoyed my brew. I was busy enough yesterday that by the time I went to bed and tried to finish it there was too much to write and I was too tired to write it. Linda developed a headache overnight and spent much of the day medicated and resting. She does not get these very often anymore but when she does they put her out of commission for a day or so. I then spent most of the day processing the photos for my next BCM article.

I took a break after lunch and worked with Butch setting up his laptop to work with Echolink ham radio software. The software use TCP and UDP ports and requires firewalls and routers to be configured to provide port forwarding. His laptop OS is Windows Vista, which has the Windows Firewall. I was not familiar with UDP ports, had never set up port forwarding, and had never worked with Vista, so I was feeling my way as I went. Their computers are connected to the Internet one of two ways, MiFi or WiFi, although the WiFi is sometimes connected through the MiFi. Their MiFi is a Verizon Jetpack (Novatel 5510L), just like ours, so I (sort of) knew my way around that device. Their WiFi setup consists of two WiFi repeater/routers; the WiFiRanger Mobile and the WiFiRanger Go2. We also have a WiFiRanger Mobile, so I also knew my way around that device (sort of) but I had never worked with the WFR Go2. We got the Echolink software to test successfully through the WFR gear using the WiFi signal at our campsite but we could not get it to test successfully through the MiFi.

In the early evening Butch called and said he was having Internet connection issues. I went to their bus and worked four a couple of hours trying to sort out what was going on. I was able to get him back online but saw some strange behaviors that we could not explain and were not able to resolve. He has Nick Russell’s Gypsy Journal Blog set as his Firefox home page and it kept redirecting to the website’s home page. I tried opening it in Internet Explorer 9 and it opened without difficulty. Website’s do not always react the same way with different browsers, but he had been on Nick’s blog earlier in the day using Firefox. I will have to look at it again tomorrow.

When I got back to our coach Linda was starting to prepare dinner. It felt very cold outside even though the weather apps said it was 41 degrees F. I decided to turn off the water supply at the street and opened some of the faucets to relieve the pressure in the pipes and let some of the water out. Dinner was leftovers from our Christmas Day meal and everything was very good the second time around.

I finished up my photo editing a little before 10 PM and backed up my files to the NAS. We turned the three thermostats on and set them for ~15 degrees C (~59 degrees F). We put the extra blanket on the bed and I turned my electric heater pad up to 4. The forecast low for tonight was in the low 30’s and it was already 36 when we turned in for the night.

2014/12/28 (N) Cooler Yet

Our cats snuggled in with us more than usual last night. They like the extra blanket and the heater pads as much as I do. At sunup the air temperature was reported as 28 degrees F, a few degrees lower than the last forecast we saw before we turned in last night. If it seems that we are preoccupied with the weather it is because we are in closer contact with it when RVing than we are when we are at our house. In the motorcoach we have to more actively manage our utilities to ensure they work properly and to maintain our comfort.

We had tea instead of coffee this morning. Until about 15 years I did not drink coffee and enjoyed morning, afternoon, and evening tea. Hot, of course; I have never been a big fan of iced tea and I have never developed a taste for iced coffee, unless it was a Starbucks Frappuccino (in my pre-vegan days).

Linda was finally feeling better and went for a long walk this morning. Before she left I noticed that there wasn’t any water coming out of the bird fountain so she unplugged it and helped me partially disassemble it so I could clean it. I ended up taking it completely apart, which was fun given that it was made of large slabs of granite, in order to get to the pump so I could clean it. I was surprised to find a small gecko-like lizard inside the pedestal base. Butch helped me reassemble and level the unit, allowing the reservoir to hold more water, and we got the outlet tube (fountain) tightened up so the water once again squirts about four inches above the tube. It needs to be filled every day or two. I have not determined if the water is being consumed by birds (there are a lot of doves and Gambrels Quail here) or evaporating (low humidity and sunshine). It is probably a bit of both.

I worked on my article most of the day, inserting photos into the Word doc and writing captions. I took a break mid-afternoon and rode into town with Butch. We found the LED vendor where the hams (amateur radio operators) hang out but the booth was closed. We wandered around looking at flea market junk and I found a set of four ratcheting tie down straps, 25mm wide by 15 feet long, for $5. I had seen similar straps at another vendor for $14, so I bought the $5 set. We stopped at Dorothy and Toto’s Ice Cream Parlor on west Main Street and bought some excellent kettle corn.

Back at the coach I continued working on my article but was having trouble keeping my eyes open so I took a nap. Linda had started making dinner about the time I got up when a white SUV pulled in that we had not seen before. A reddish-chocolate-brown dog appeared and took off after some of the rabbits followed by a man with a leash. We figured Jim and Barbara, the owners of the third motorhome at our camp, had arrived so we put our shoes on and went out to meet them. Jim got Roho on leash and Barbara appeared shortly thereafter, followed by Butch and then Fonda. It was dusk and cooling off quickly, so the conversation was short before everyone returned to their motorhomes. Before going in I turned the water off at the street and opened one of the faucets on our standpipe to relieve the pressure and let some of the water out.

For dinner Linda made skillet black beans with potatoes and tortillas. Besides the title ingredients it had onions, garlic, poblano pepper, and salsa. I added a little Tabasco Chipotle sauce to mine. We each had a glass of sangria, which was refreshing with this hearty dish. After dinner I finished working on my article and I uploaded it to the BCM folder in my Dropbox. I sent an e-mail to the publisher, editor, and new administrative assistant. I then started uploading the photo files and went to bed.

2014/12/29 (M) Cool Cruiser Redux

We had English Breakfast Tea to start our day, followed by store bought (bulk) granola for breakfast. We have run out of Linda’s homemade granola and I really miss it. The stuff we buy at the store just doesn’t taste like much of anything by comparison. After breakfast I started working on my next article for BCM. Actually, it was an article I wrote back in February of this year but had not quite finished. Besides the text I had already selected the photos but, as often happens, I had not finished the process of putting them in order, sorting them into print edition and digital edition extra section, post-processing them, and inserting thumbnail versions into the Word document. So that’s what I started working on this morning.

Late morning I took a break from the photo work and pulled the cover off of the dashboard to check the turbo boost gauge. It was, indeed, a mechanical gauge with a very small nylon tube coming out the back of it. I opened the Prevost CatBase Viewer and looked up the part, thinking I might order one today. The specified part was a VDO gauge, 1/8-27 NPT, but did not give the mounting hole size, the, range, or the sweep degrees. Both 24V and 12V bulbs were listed. I think we need 24V. What I found interesting was that the gauge for the VIP (conversion shell) was shown as “dummy,” which meant the unit was originally shipped with a filler plate rather than an actual gauge. The turbo boost gauge in our coach is functional but is the wrong gauge for our engine. It’s a Sentry vacuum/boost gauge. The vacuum side is useless on our turbocharged engine and the boost side only goes to 15 PSI, which is not high enough.

VDO makes two turbo boost gauges that should work as replacements. Both are 2-1/16 (52mm) size, 0 – 30 PSI, 270 degree sweep, mechanical units. They come with 12V bulbs but those are easily changed. The differences are in the faceplate markings and the mounting systems. The Cockpit Series gauge is marked in 1 PSI increments, which I prefer, but uses the traditional rear U-bracket to hold the instrument in the dashboard. The Vision Series gauge, which is what our new speedometer is, has 2 PSI increments but mounts using a collar that threads onto the body of the instrument from the back side of the dashboard. I was going to call Prevost and order a gauge but both gauges are available from PartDeal.com, which is run by ISSPRO. ISSPRO sells their own line of gauges in addition to VDO and other brands. I was chatting with Butch and he mentioned that they were closed for the holidays and would reopen on January 2nd, so I did not order a gauge today.

We left around noon and drove to the vendor area at Central Avenue and Kuehn Street. We parked the car and wandered around checking out vendors who were not set up or open the last couple of times we were here. While we were strolling I got a call from Frank Morrison. Frank was at the Arcadia Bus Rally in Arcadia, Florida and wanted to know if we were there. I photographed Frank’s bus, the Cool Cruiser, at last year’s rally and the article was the cover story in the June 2014 issue of Bus Conversion Magazine. Frank said that in the welcome bag each attendee received there was a second bag from BCM and in that bag was the June 2014 issue. Cool. I wrote two other articles for BCM as a result of that rally. The February 2014 issue was on the rally itself and the April 2014 issue featured the Iron Horse, an Eagle bus conversion. Both articles ran in the cover/centerfold position.

For lunch we had chickpea salad on sourdough bread with dark greens and were surprised to see a Trek motorhome backing in to the property. Jim and Barb obviously knew the people and helped them get parked. Once they were in their site we went out and introduced ourselves, as did Butch and Fonda. Jack and Maria were only here for the night. They had been camped at the BLM Pyramid Lake LTVA, about 60 miles south of Quartzsite, but developed issues with their solar charger and a squealing/screeching noise when they start their engine. They had appointments first thing in the morning to have these problems addressed and were planning on heading back to the desert tomorrow. Barb mentioned that she had talked to Joe and Connie and Joe said we did not have to turn the water off at night. One less chore is good by me.

Linda went for another power walk while I worked on my article. I want to get my “almost finished” articles done and off to the magazine so I can work on some new pieces. It’s easier on me and them if I can keep the pipeline flowing and stay ahead of them.

For dinner we had soy riblets with barbecue sauce, macaroni and cheese (gluten and dairy free), and fresh sautéed green beans. The riblets were tasty, as always, and the green beans were excellent, but the mac & cheese was not good eats. It was the second of two boxes we bought somewhere and Linda even added some things to try to improve them but it didn’t help. We won’t be buying this product again.

Having spent a portion of the day processing photos I did not feel like doing more of that after dinner. I played a few puzzles on my iPad while Linda played word games on hers with Karen and Ron. We were in bed by a little after 9 PM and I went right to sleep.

2014/12/30 (T) Trash Day

Tuesday is trash day. The collection truck comes at noon so the trash can has to be to the curb by 11AM. I happened to glance outside as we were sitting down to enjoy our mourning tea and it was already at the curb. Jim or Barb are responsible for this when they are here, along with maintaining the apartment and laundry room, and one of them had obviously taken it out.

Jack and Maria pulled out around 8:30 AM with Maria driving their Trek and Jack following in their SUV. We figured we had seen the last if them and did not even get to say ‘goodbye’ so we were surprised when they returned an hour later and backed their motorhome back into their spot and leveled it. They left in their car fairly soon thereafter and did not return until later in the day.

Linda went for her usual morning walk and I continued working on my Habitat For Humanity article for Bus Conversion Magazine. Around 11:15 AM my Bluetooth mouse signaled that its battery was critically low and needed to be recharged. I plugged it in and figured that was a good time to take a break and do something else. Butch was outside with his tool bay open and Jim was out there with Roho so I went out and chatted for a while. I needed to repair the connections on the front switch that controls the aisle lights so I borrowed Butch’s VOM, wire stripper, and terminal crimper and got three 1/4″ female crimp connectors from him. I have all of these tools and supplies, but his were more convenient.

Being a 3-way circuit the switch has three wires. It’s a double-pole double-throw switch so it had a second set of unused contacts. I used the VOM to determine if the unused set of contacts worked as expected. They did, so I removed the old connectors, one at a time, cut the wire loose from the connector, cut about an inch off of the end, crimped the new connector onto the wire, and pushed the connector onto the corresponding unused terminal. I tested the circuit and I was able to turn it on and off from both switches. (The other switch is in the control panel in the bedroom by my side of the bed).

My recollection is that the 3-way circuit feature did not work prior to this. That could have been because the wire that broke off the other day was only attached by a few strands, or because of a failure in the switch on that set of contacts, or both. The plastic insulated housings on the old connectors were very brittle and showed signs of heat damage, which could have occurred as the result of a very marginal connection. When I tried to pull them off of the switch terminals they shattered. I was also unable to pull the metal connectors off of the lugs and had to pry them open and then pry them off. The first 1/2 inch of each wire was also discolored and brittle, indicating heat damage. I did not bother to check the other set of switch contacts for correct function as the lugs also showed signs of heat damage and I do not plan to use them again. In fact, I plan to replace the switch if/when I happen to find one or get around to ordering one. The whole repair, including borrowing and returning tools, took less time to do than it took me to describe the work in this post.

Linda confirmed that our Fedex delivery was scheduled for today. We have been rationing the cats’ food the last 48 hours and they are confused as to why. They do not usually finish the dry kibble in their bowls but insist on having fresh kibble added each morning and evening. To accommodate this expectation we have been adding very small quantities of fresh kibble to their bowls. I don’t think cats can count, but they can definitely tell the difference between serving sizes of kibble and are not pleased at our puny offerings.

Jack and Maria returned sometime during the afternoon. I saw them pull in but did not note the time. We had sandwiches for lunch and then went for a walk. We headed southwest from our campsite and worked our way over to Moon Mountain Avenue. Our destination was the Salvation Army Store but we stopped to look at things along the way. We checked out the Mountain Quail Cafe, but the only thing on their menu we could eat was the side salad. Too bad, it looked like a cozy, comfortable place and the sign said they featured ‘home cooking.’ Well, not our home, of course. ‘Home cooking’ is usually code for “everything is cooked in butter, we make liberal use of eggs and dairy, and treat bacon as a condiment.”

Moon Mountain Avenue between Main Street and Quail Trail seems to mostly be developments rather than individual lots. We stopped at one place that had a lot for sale at the corner of Moon Mountain and the entrance road. All of the lots were separated on three sides by the exact same low brick wall construction that we have seen all over town. Some of the lots had the brick wall with a gate across the front. As we were studying this lot the man across the street pulled out and drove over to see if we had any questions. We really didn’t, but he answered them anyway.

It turned out that most of the developments on Moon Mountain Avenue were co-ops. The price on this particular lot ($49,900) did not buy you a deed but rather a fractional ownership of the co-op with a lease for the perpetual use of that particular lot. The price also included compensation to the current leaseholder for improvements to the lot, and whatever appreciation in value the market would bear. You were free to sell your ownership share along with the leasehold for your lot, or will it to your children. (This co-op, like many of the RV Parks in town, was a 55+ community, so it would be a long time before our “kids” could use it if they were interested, which I doubt.) The annual maintenance fees for this co-op were $56/month ($672/year) and included water, sewer, property taxes, and association dues; everything except electricity. Each site had its own billable electric meter. The only added expense would be property taxes for improvements, such as a park model trailer or RV port.

We were glad we stopped and that this fellow was willing to share this information with us. We suspect that many of the similar looking areas around town are probably also co-ops or even developments with deeded lots. Every little thing we learn like this helps us develop a better understanding of Quartzsite. BTW: the Salvation Army store was closed. We have walked or driven by at various times on different days and have yet to find it open for business.

When we got back to camp Linda needed a few things for dinner and thought the Road Runner Market might have them. She grabbed Fonda and they took off in our car. Butch was working on his HF mobile ham radio antenna on the roof of their bus and Barb was scurrying around the property taking care of things. I was going to help Butch but got a phone call from Michele Henry of Phoenix Paint to discuss the spots on our roof and what to do about them. Once we were done talking I was able to lend Butch some assistance with the antenna project which involved the installation of bonding (grounding) straps between the antenna and the roof of the bus.

The FedEx truck showed up before Linda and Fonda got back so I opened the box and unpacked the contents. The kitties recognize Science Diet cat food bags and were very happy to see it. I was opening the new coffee maker when Linda returned. We got it unpacked and stored in the cubby where the old one was installed. She had started cleaning and rearranging drawers before our walk so she finished putting everything away or set aside things she had decided she did not need to have on board.

I’ve been needing a haircut for a while and prevailed on Linda to take care of it while we still had sunlight. After she was done I used the clippers to trim my beard and then put everything away. Linda checked our log book and according to our records the last time we dumped our holding tanks was on the 20th. We like them to be as full as possible before dumping, as they evacuate better but cannot let them overfill so we decided to dump them while it was still daylight. Better safe than sorry.

I got another Hach SofChek water hardness test strip from Butch and checked the output of our water softener. It measured 7 on a scale of 0 (soft) to 25 (very hard). A reading of 7 is considered ‘hard’ water but the softener was still working somewhat as the water coming straight out of the tap measured 25. We still had 1/3 tank of fresh water and I decided to add 1/6th of a tank, about 20 gallons, and bring it up to the 1/2 level. I will have to recharge the water softener tomorrow before adding any more water to our tank.

I was able to finish editing photos while Linda prepared dinner. She cut a large poblano pepper in half lengthwise and stuffed it with leftovers from two nights ago. She also made Mexican rice from scratch using Texmati rice, onions, garlic, tomato sauce, cumin, and vegetable broth. The peppers and rice were very good and went well with a glass of sangria.

Early this morning I thought I might finish my HFH article for BCM and be able to upload it this evening, but that did not happen. I still needed to insert the thumbnails into the Word document and write the captions. I was too tired to start that work, knowing how long that would take, so I played a few puzzle games and went to bed.

2014/12/31(W) Adios 2014

The polar outbreak that is gripping most of Canada and the U. S. A. has also made its presence felt here in Quartzsite. The overnight low was 35 and we had light rain. The high today won’t break 50, and the lows for the next two days are forecast to be in the upper 20s. Not that far from us (~180 miles) Joshua Tree NP had a rare dusting of snow and the forecast for Flagstaff is for as much as 16 inches of holiday whiteness. The temperature back home is in the teens, so we have no complaints about the weather in Q.

Linda went for a long morning walk and found the Salvation Army store open. Apparently their hours are 8 AM to 1 PM Monday through Friday and we had managed to always walk past outside that time frame. She picked up a few things from the Road Runner Market while she was out. By the time she got back at 1 PM I had just finished inserting photos into my Habitat For Humanity article and captioning them so I had her proofread it.

With the proofreading done we had a bite of lunch and then drove to Blythe, California to pick up some grocery items that are not available here in Q. We stopped first at the AutoZone store, in the northwest corner of the Albertson’s parking lot, and bought supplies for cleaning the bus. Now all we need is a nice warm day so we can get out early and work at it until we are done. We need to do the car, too.

We got a TXT message from our son while driving back to Q. It was a short video of grand-daughter Madeline climbing into her car seat all by herself. That led to an exchange of messages leading to the question from our daughter as to whether she could climb out by herself. That question will apparently be answered tomorrow. The growth from age one to age two is quite amazing.

When we got back to our coach I carried in the groceries. While Linda put them away I added 30 gallons of water to our fresh water tank. I really wanted to recharge the water softener first, and bought a 40 pound bag of solar salt at Albertson’s for that purpose, but it was too late in the afternoon and too cold to start that process. I still need to fabricate the special perforated tube for the water filter housing, so it will take longer than a normal recharge.

We had some hot tea and cookies and relaxed for a while. Linda finished proofreading my HFH article and I then went through it one more time to make sure it was ready to upload. She also e-mailed Mara, one of the women who participated in the HFH build, to wish her a happy holiday and see what part of the country she was in at the moment.

Dinner was a simple, easy affair; a nice salad of fresh greens with other goodies mixed in and a couple of Asian noodle soup bowls. Sometimes Linda does not feel like cooking and we keep a certain amount of packaged convenience food on board for such occasions.

It has been our tradition since we started dating in high school to stay up and celebrate the coming of the New Year. We rang in three calendar changes while dating and have observed 42 more since getting married. Tonight was number 43. For all of that time we have rarely gone out on New Year’s Eve, preferring to stay close to home and off the streets. Besides, large, loud parties have never been our style, especially since I do not dance.

When we were dating, and in the early years of our marriage, we would spend the holidays in the St. Louis, Missouri area visiting family. My parents hosted a New Year’s Eve party that, in retrospect, was quite a large and well-attended event, and that is where we hung out, often joined by a few friends from our high school days. As we attained legal age a champagne toast became part of the tradition (although in the privacy and safety of my parents’ home we probably started this tradition a bit sooner).

As our children came into the picture we still traveled to St. Louis but when they got a bit older we started spending our holidays at home. Linda’s sister, Marilyn, started visiting us between Christmas and New Year’s and the tradition of assembling a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle on New Year’s Eve began. Linda usually did not cook a New Year’s Eve meal. Instead we had California Dip (made from Lipton’s Onion Soup mix) and chips, jumbo shrimp with cocktail sauce, smoked salmon, and other munchies that we nibbled on throughout the day. This was, of course, all pre-vegan. Starting around 11 PM we would turn the TV to one of the networks doing the countdown from Times Square in New York City. I think it was ABC as we usually watched Dick Clark. At 11:55 PM we would open a bottle of champagne and fill our glasses. When the ball dropped and the clock struck 12 we would toast the New Year.

Since our children became adults they have spent New Year’s Eve with their friends and families. Besides Marilyn we have had occasional guests at our house but more often it has been a quiet evening at home with just the two or three of us and we often went to bed shortly after the arrival of the New Year. The last two years have been unusual in that we moved to a different house in 2013 but have never celebrated New Year’s there. Given that we plan to do most of our extended RVing from mid-fall to mid-spring it may be quite (if ever) before we celebrate New Year’s at the new house.

For the 2013-to-2014 change we were at the Arcadia Bus Rally in Arcadia, Florida where we attended a party with 200 other people and a live band. We spent much of the evening outside where the volume was about right and the temperatures were pleasant. This year we are camped on private property in Quartzsite with three other couples, none of whom seemed interested in staying up until midnight, so we toasted the New Year in the privacy of our coach three times before going to bed. We are unable to receive OTA TV signals here, so we watched (listened to) the ball drop in Times Square on Linda’s iPad (at 10 PM MST) and shared a champagne toast. She then sent TXT messages to both of our children. At 11 PM MST we shared another champagne toast. I sent a TXT message to my sister and niece while Linda sent one to her sister, all of whom live near St. Louis, Missouri in the Central Time Zone. At our local midnight we shared our final toast and welcomed the New Year in the Mountain Time Zone. If we had been so inclined we could have driven to Blythe, California, returning temporarily to 2014, and celebrated the coming of the New Year in the Pacific Time Zone. But we didn’t. That kind of thing is more fun to “brag” about than it actually is to do.

Before turning in for the night I updated my article status spreadsheet and then uploaded it to the BCM folder in my Dropbox along with the HFH article and associated photos. I then e-mailed the team at BCM to let them know it was there and wished them a Happy New Year. I also e-mailed a link to a PDF version of the article to Steven Gullette, our team leader on the HFH build that was the main focus of the article, and wished him a Happy New Year as well. So endith another year. Adios 2014.

2014/12/21-25 (N-R) The Holidays Arrive

Leave a reply

2014/12/21 (N) Winter Solstice

Linda was reading an interesting tidbit online this morning about the winter solstice, which occurs today in the northern hemisphere. It usually occurs on the 21st, like today, but occasionally slips into the 22nd. While it is the day of the year with the least hours of sunlight (between sun up to sun down) it is not the day with the latest sunrise (which occurred a couple of weeks ago) or the earliest sunset (which does not occur for a couple of more weeks). Why is that? Axial tilt, elliptical orbits, and a “day” that is not exactly 24 hours. Science is fun.

Today was a stay-at-home / stay-in-town day for us. Linda vacuumed the coach and mopped the floor tiles. She says she likes to do this once a week to keep the cat hair under control. By “likes” I think she means “needs.” She also decided to do the laundry. When we are at our house the laundry is usually my chore but for some reason, to which I am not privy, she takes over this chore when we are living in the RV, at least initially. The same thing happened last year at Williston Crossings RV Resort, although we eventually both did laundry until I was able to win back my rightful chore. So far again this year it has been her self-selected task here at Quartzsite and I have not gone out of my way to reclaim my rightful place as master of the laundry.

What I did instead of laundry was spend the morning finishing our 2014 Year-in-Review holiday letter. Linda proof read it and then I converted it to PDF and did a final check of the layout to make sure the text and photos had not shifted or been clipped. I copied it to a flash drive so we can take it someplace in Blythe tomorrow and have it printed.

The other day I noticed that the manifold pressure sensor (turbo boost) on Butch and Fonda’s 6v92 was mounted vertically on the front passenger side of the ECM. I could not see exactly how it was mounted, however, so today I finally looked it up in the DD 92 Series manual. I did not attempt to reattach our sensor module today but I was curious to see what would be involved. I also continued to interact with other Prevost owners on the Prevost Community forum regarding the turbo boost issues and the dashboard gauge, which does not have the correct scale for our engine. That thread has led to a dialogue about the SilverLeaf systems, including the VMSpc that we have, and an alternative system from RV Tech Tools that uses an iPad app named “RV Dash” and a wireless (WiFi) interface named “CANpod” from Cubix Labs.

With our various chores done we had a light lunch of chickpea salad on a bed of mixed greens and then went for a long walk. The walk took us down Washington Ave. and then over to Kitsap Ave. to see a gorgeous Adobe house that Linda had discovered on a previous walk. That led us to the backside of the west-central “vendor” (flea market) area on the north side of Main St. We are not collectors, and we are not into antiques, guns, rocks, jewelry, or junk, so we saw very little that interested us. We did see a few pieces of Pyrex, which our daughter and son-in-law were collecting at one time, and I am always on the lookout for a good deal on a tool I can’t live without, but mostly we saw endless quantities of stuff that we could not fathom anyone buying.

We crossed Main Street and visited the Tyson’s Well Stagecoach Stop Museum. The grounds and building were open, admission was free, and it was unattended. There were items for sale and if we had wanted something we would have put the money in the collection box. That’s small town.

We headed east on Main Street and crossed back to the north side using the crosswalk at AZ-95 (Central Ave.). We then continued east and stopped at the Road Runner Market. We were pleased to find that they had a small but good selection of fresh produce. On our way out the door the florist gave Linda a red and white carnation. We will definitely be doing some of our local grocery shopping there. We knew there was a restaurant/bakery on the far east end of Main Street so we kept on walking. Sweet Darlene’s looked like a nice local place for a home-cooked style meal, but did not have anything on the menu we could eat. The bakery turned out to be a small display case with pies and sweet rolls, but they did not make their own bread, so we won’t have any reason to come back.

By this time it was getting to be late afternoon, the cloud layer had thickened, and it was getting a bit chilly so we headed back towards Central Avenue. We counted laundromats along the way, and passed at least four before getting back to our coach. Not that we need a laundromat—we have a laundry where we are staying—but with all of the boondockers in and around Q it is a matter of some curiosity to us how/where they take care of things like this. By the time we got back to our coach we had walked just over five miles.

Sunset over the Dome Rock Mountains due west of our encampment.

By 5:15 PM the sun had slipped just below the mountains to our southwest and the sky started to glow pink for 360 degrees around us. The sunset went on for over 30 minutes, the pinks deepening to reds. And then, just like that, the color was gone and darkness enveloped the valley.

For dinner Linda made a simple green salad with raisins and peanuts. She then heated up some vegan re-fried beans, pan-grilled a package of fajita vegetables she got from Connie before they left, and then heated two tortillas. We each made a tasty roll up, adding some salsa and vegan sour cream. She washed some black seedless grapes and set them out for desert. They were very refreshing after the somewhat heavier and spicy main course.

2024/12/22 (M) Compressed

We had planned on driving to Blythe, California today but those plans changed fairly early in the morning. Butch got an update that his air-compressor was on a UPS truck in Blythe and scheduled for delivery today. I had promised to help him with the installation and provide a few tools he did not have with him so we decided to stick around camp. We were also waiting for Connie’s realtor, Carolyn, to come by and pick up two yellow Post Office slips.

Linda took her morning walk after breakfast while I downloaded the October and November issues of Bus Conversion Magazine in both standard- and high-definition. I was really glad to finally see these issues. The October issue included my article on our T. F. Hudgins Spinner II Centrifugal By-pass Oil Cleaner project. That was my one remaining article waiting to be published. I have at least a half dozen in process, at least that many more for which I have taken photos (and written blog posts), and a very long list of future projects, so it’s time to get the next batch of articles ready to submit.

When Linda got back I drove to the print/copy/fax/pack/ship/etc. store on east Main Street to see if they could print our holiday letter. They had plain 8.5×14 white paper, and the photos looked OK, but it was going to cost $4 per letter ($2/side) so I paid for the one copy and left. They suggested that I try Weeks Printing in Blythe (20 miles west) or Staples in Lake Havasu City (70+ miles north). Since we will likely head to Blythe tomorrow we will check out Weeks first.

As long as I was out I stopped at Barry’s Breads and bought a couple of fresh “rolls” which were really small loaves of bread. Barry runs a little seasonal bakery out of a temporary vendor stand on the northeast corner of Central Avenue (US-95) and Kuehn Street. Most of his products have butter or cream cheese as ingredients—his Danish pastries are as big around as a dinner plate—but he does make just plain bread and everything is made fresh daily. Back in camp Linda called Weeks Printing and they quoted $1.25 for each 2-sided letter. Much better. We will check them out when we make it to Blythe; probably tomorrow.

For lunch Linda made a batch of her scrumptious chickpea salad/spread and served it on one of the rolls I bought at Barry’s. After a week of cloudy skies, cool temperatures, and a little rain we finally had a day with clear, sunny skies and the high temperature up into the 70s. Butch decided to remove his defective air-compressor and there wasn’t anything we could do to help (or stop him) so we decided to clean some more of our coach exterior. I wanted to work from the top down, which meant starting with the roof. That, in turn, meant getting out the Little Giant convertible extension/step ladder and setting it up as a 14 foot extension ladder. In this configuration it extends beyond the top edge of the roof at the front, making it safer for me to get up on the lower roof area from the driver’s side.

Rinsing down the roof of the coach (photo by Linda).

The roof was very dirty and it appeared that we might have more than just embedded dirt to deal with. The roof has a sprayed-on ceramic-infused white coating with a surface akin to medium grit sandpaper. It reflects sunlight and provides a nice nap for walking on, but also traps dirt. The last time the roof was cleaned was in early April, just before we left Williston Crossings RV Resort. I had been on the roof subsequent to that, in our pull-through driveway at home, using it as a platform for trimming tree limbs. I do not recall it being unusually dirty at that time, but I was focused on other things. If it had been, I probably would have washed it, but maybe not; I was focused on other things.

I used a little bit of Dawn dish soap in several gallons of water and our soft, long handle, brush to try and scrub it clean and then rinsed it with softened water. It was better by the time I was done but far from 100% clean. I also scrubbed all of the metal awning covers and then hosed them off and rinsed the awning fabric. When I was done on the roof I sprayed off all four sides of the bus, but even with the softened water it left spots and streaks. Another unfortunate side effect of this work is that it frightened our male cat, Jasper, who ended up hiding behind the steering column in an attempt to escape the sights and sounds of a ‘monster’ on the roof.

We would like to get the body clean but there’s no point doing anything until I get the roof finished (Linda does not climb ladders and she does not get on the roof of the bus.) At a minimum I am going to have to use a stiff scrub brush and a stronger solution of Dawn dish soap, or perhaps a commercial cleaner that can treat mold/mildew along with just plain dirt. We will then have to do the vertical surfaces in small sections, scrubbing, rinsing, and drying as we go. We have a sprayer for our hose that has a small bottle for additives and one of the reasons I bought it was to try using a dishwasher rinse aid, like Jet Dry, to see if it would eliminate spotting. To-date, however, I have not tried that.

The old Bendix Tu-Flo 700 air-compressor out of Butch & Fonda’s MC-9. The governor is the silver thing on the left. The open port on top is the air discharge where the unloader valves are located.

Once Butch had the old air-compressor out of their bus he turned the input shaft and noted that the pistons were not pumping air. This confirmed that something had failed internally and ordering a replacement was the right thing to do. There wasn’t much else to do so we all sat around in the warm sun and waited for the UPS truck to show up, which it finally did around 3:45 PM. We (me, Linda, and Fonda) suggested that Butch wait until tomorrow to start installing it, but we knew that was not going to happen. The compressor was a significant road failure that had bugged him since it happened and he was anxious to get it fixed.

The new (re-built) Bendix Tu-Flo 700 air-compressor with the old spline and new port plugs.

The Bendix Tu-Flo 700 he received is designed specifically for mounting on Detroit Diesel 92 series 2-stroke engines but has more ports on it than are typically used in this application. Making sure to match the configuration of the old compressor, Butch installed new plugs in the unneeded ports. He then removed the fittings from the old unit one at a time and installed them in the new one, being careful to line them up exactly the same way. I helped by holding the compressor on a work table while Butch tightened the pipe threads. This was the easy part of the project as we were standing at a tall bench with plenty of room to work and good light.

The new air-compressor with fittings. Note the alignment marks for orienting the fittings correctly. The spline is in the upper left of the photo.

The hard part was getting the air-compressor re-installed. Butch eventually got it onto two of the four mounting studs, which then took the weight. We discovered a clearance issue with one of the port plugs and he had to pull the compressor back out. He removed a plug from the old compressor, which did not stick out as far, and reused it in the new compressor. With the compressor back on the studs it now lined up better but the spline would not engage the drive gear on the end of the engine camshaft. He put a wrench on the crankshaft pulley nut and turned the engine slightly by standing on the end of it while I jiggled the air-compressor.

The “governor” mounted on the new compressor.

The spline eventually engaged the engine gear and the air-compressor gear enough that Butch was able to fully seat the flange and insert/tighten the four mounting studs, lock washers, and nuts. Per the instructions, he reconnected all of the lines except for the air discharge and called it a night. The coolant goes back in tomorrow and Butch will then start the main engine to make sure the compressor works, check for leaks, and let any contaminants get blown out the discharge fitting. If everything looks good he will attach the discharge line, which connects the outlet port of the air-compressor to the coach air system, and air up the bus.

The new air-compressor (blue) mounted on the rear of the engine block (towards the front of the bus).

The new air-compressor (blue) mounted on the rear of the DD6V92TA engine block (towards the front of the bus) in Butch and Fonda’s MCI MC-9B NJT.

At least we were successful in convincing Butch to wait until tomorrow to put the coolant back in the engine. By the time we finished working, put our tools away, and got cleaned up it was 7:30 PM and had been dark for two hours. Linda reheated the leftover fajita fixings and we had open-faced tortillas with Fritos corn chips, salsa, black grapes, and Sangria. We were both tired so we relaxed for a while after dinner and then went to bed.

2024/12/23 (T) Blythe, CA

We got a call from Connie right after breakfast letting us know that the two packages Carolyn picked up yesterday were for us and Butch. We needed to pick them up before 11AM as Carolyn had an appointment at that time. Linda was headed out for her morning walk anyway so she walked to Rock Reality, near the post office and uptown drugs, to get the packages from Carolyn. (Carolyn is Joe and Connie’s realtor.) She dropped off the two P. O. Box – Mail Pickup Notice cards at the post office while she was there.

Our package was from Madeline (Brendan and Shawna), to be opened on Christmas Day. Butch’s package was the unloader valve kits for our Bendix Tu-Flo 700 air-compressors. He ordered them while we were in Forest City, Arkansas for delivery to Amarillo, Texas but they did not arrive in time so his friend forwarded them to our Quartzsite location.

Butch and Fonda used most of the morning to put the coolant back into the engine. Our buses, which still have their over-the-road heating systems, hold a lot of coolant. Ours requires 34 gallons. The buses are not identical, but I suspect theirs requires at least 30 gallons. And it is very important that the cooling system is filled to capacity and has had all of the air purged out of it. It’s a big, messy job.

They got as much in as they could by standing on a ladder and pouring it through a funnel into the filler tube for the surge tank. The radiators on the MCI MC-9 are located above the engine, one on each side wall at the rear of the bus, and the surge tank is located above them, so the filler tube is approximately 9 feet from the ground. Butch started the engine to warm it up enough for the thermostat to open and to circulate the coolant and opened a couple of bleeder valves to let air out. He also checked the outlet fitting on the new air-compressor to verify that it was pumping air. It was (hurray!), so he shut the engine off, attached the air line to the outlet fitting, and started it back up. The chassis air system (suspension and brakes) came up to pressure and the air-dryer “sneezed” (momentarily opened its purge valve) so the system was fully operational.

We planned to go to Blythe, California today and Butch and Fonda wanted to go too, so he shut off the engine and they cleaned up their campsite. We were sitting in our coach when the winds came up rather strong. Linda checked the weather and the winds were out of the north at 20 MPH and forecast at 22-25 MPH until 6 PM. That was strong enough for us to retract our awnings, close our roof vents, collapse our folding chairs, and stow our patio mat. Butch and Fonda also retracted their patio awning and stored all of their outdoor equipment and furniture. We had the old patio awning on our Itasca Sunrise torn off by strong (thunderstorm) winds while we were away from the motorhome and have been extra careful about awnings and wind ever since.

With all of that done we headed to Blythe in their Chevy Suburban. From 879 feet ASL in Q we climbed to about 1200 feet ASL over the low mountain range that separates the two valleys, and then descended to 240 feet ASL as we crossed the Colorado River and entered California. A few miles later we took the 7th Street exit and we were there. The 20 mile drive was only five more miles than the trip we made from Williston Crossings RV Resort to the Publix grocery store (at the southwest corner of Gainesville, Florida) last winter, so it did not feel like a long way to go for groceries. At home we have supermarkets about five miles away in three different directions. Butch and Fonda typically drive into Logansport for their groceries, a distance of 12 miles, so we are all used to traveling some distance to purchase our food.

The Smart & Final Extra and the Albertson’s were on the NW and SE corners of 7th and Hobsonway, just north of I-10, making them especially convenient for us, so this is where we will likely shop every other week or so. But our first destination was a few blocks farther west on S. Main St. where we found Weeks Printing. They were eventually able to access our flash drive and open the PDF of our holiday letter. They had a high quality paper in 8.5”x14” size, and were able to print our letter 2-sided on a good quality color laser printer for a very reasonable price of $1.25 per letter ($0.625 per side). They did not take credit cards so we paid cash, but it saved us a 73 mile trip (one way) to Staples in Lake Havasu City.

Self-portrait of the blogger. I am merely a reflection of my former self.

At the Smart & Final Extra we bought fresh produce, soy milk, and some bulk, canned, and packaged items. They did not carry the Silk brand soy coffee creamer that I like, and there were a few items Butch and Fonda needed that the store did not have, so we drove across the street to Albertson’s and got those items. I stayed in the car with the groceries, but I already knew that the Albertson’s would be a nice store based on our experience with the chain in Sheridan, Wyoming during summer 2013. With our shopping done we returned to Quartzsite.

I carried the groceries from the car to the bus and Linda stored them, discovering that she had an empty tub available in the cabinet above the refrigerator. By the time she was done it was approaching 4 PM so she prepared chickpea salad sandwiches as a quick, light lunch and then announced that we should go for a walk before it got dark. She let me chose the route so we crossed Central Avenue (AZ-95) and walked to the city park, which has a very nice baseball field with lights and the only grass we have seen in Quartzsite. There was also a skateboard facility, a football field, and two F4 Phantom jets (minus the engines and other equipment). The Quartzsite Metal Detecting Club (QMDC) has a practice field adjacent to the park. The park is located near the following municipal facilities: Community Center and Library, County Court, Police Station, and Post Office Annex (where most of the P. O. Boxes are located). The Fire Department is a little farther north on Tyson Wells Street just east of Central Avenue.

The sun was getting near the tops of the mountains to our southwest so we headed pack to our coach and settled in for the evening. For dinner Linda made a barley risotto with garlic, shallots, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, vegetable both, and seasonings. While she was cooking I got a call from my dad and got him caught up on our whereabouts and activities. The risotto was excellent and we each enjoyed a glass of sangria with our meal.

I don’t know if we are just relaxed, or really tired after a hard summer and fall, but we have both been going to bed earlier and waking up later than usual. Or perhaps it is just the effect of fresh air and sunshine. Whatever the reason, it’s nice to be able to just sleep when that is what we feel like doing and get up when we are read.

We have an excellent Verizon signal here in Q. Linda often likes to pace up and down Lollipop Lane while talking on the phone. If you lived on Lollipop Lane you would too.

2014/12/24 (W) Christmas Eve

It’s Christmas Eve and we woke to a temperature of 37 degrees, clear skies, light winds, and no snow. The forecast high for today was 66, with no snow. Do I miss snow at the holidays? Not really. At one time (high school) I considered myself something of a “romantic” in the sense that I liked the classical music of the romantic era, but I am not particularly nostalgia. If I was, we would own a restored 1957 Chevy; red, of course. No, we had snow at home before we left and as a harbinger of things to come we took it as a sign that our departure was overdue. Christmas in the desert will be a new experience for us, but so far it looks very agreeable. We will miss being with family, of course, but we are not alone here and technology keeps all of us much more connected than it once did.

Having been to Blythe yesterday we did not have any last minute shopping to do today. The desert was there yesterday and will be there tomorrow (I presume) so we did not have to see it today. With the holidays upon us I did not feel like working on bus projects. Linda started addressing the envelopes for our Year-In-Review Holiday Letter and then worked on food preparations for tomorrow’s dinner with Butch and Fonda. It seemed like a good day for me to finally start catching up on some things that I have not had time for in a while. For instance, I need to work on articles for Bus Conversions Magazine, update our bus project list/status, update our website, upload some blog posts (OK, a LOT of blog posts), and catch up on the blogs I follow using the Feedly app on my iPad. I am way behind on all of these tasks and starting to feel some pressure about it, albeit self-imposed. I do not have to do any of these things if I don’t want to, of course, but they are activities that I enjoy and want to do. Still, being way behind takes some of the fun out of it and makes it a bit more like work. I won’t get caught up in one day or one week or even one month; it will take many weeks of persistent effort.

After checking e-mail, I settled in to work on my article about the exterior renovation of our motorcoach. Michele Henry of Phoenix Paint helped me finish the article in early October but I still needed to select and caption all of the photos. While I worked on that Linda walked to the Road Runner Market and managed to snag the last 3-pack of yeast. When she got back she made her orange cranberry relish for tomorrow’s dinner.

We took a break for lunch and then Linda headed out for her daily power walk. When she got back she continued addressing envelopes for our holiday letter. Just as I was feeling like I needed a break, Butch knocked on the door to let me know he was working on a small project that might interest me. He had already burped the coolant lines that supply heat to the living area of their bus when driving and gotten the last of the coolant into the system. His new project was getting an alternator driven tachometer connected and calibrated.

It turned out that he needed positive DC power to the tachometer in addition to the ground and RPM signal. He was able to temporarily pick up 24VDC from the positive terminal of the starter, found a convenient ground point, and picked up the rotational speed from the stator terminal on the back of the alternator. With the engine running at low idle he measured the RPM of the main crankshaft pulley using an optical sensor instrument. It was just over 600 RPMs so he adjusted the tach via a set screw on the rear to match the reading. He kicked it into high idle and measured the rotational speed as 950 RPM. That is what the tach displayed within the precision of the markings. He already has a signal wire run from the engine compartment to the cockpit but needs to mount the tachometer in a separate bullet housing, connect the wire on both ends, and provide positive and negative (ground) DC to the instrument. He decided not to take on that project today.

(Note: RPM is universally understood to be an abbreviation for “Revolutions Per Minute” but that is not necessarily correct. An object such as the pulley on the end of an engine crankshaft rotates about its own axis, just as the earth does, and has angular velocity which is properly measured in rotations per some unit of time or angular displacement per some unit of time. The abbreviation is, of course, still RPM. In the case of the pulley, however, Butch put a small piece of white tape on the face of the pulley at the outside edge to act as a target for his optical sensor. If we consider the piece of tape as a separate object then it does, indeed, revolve around the center axis of the pulley, just as the earth revolves around the sun. Viewed thus way, revolutions per minute is technically correct. As with many things in physics, it depends on your frame of reference. So much for today’s physics lesson.)

This building houses (L-2-R) the laundry room, the apartment, and a small workshop at our compound.

As long as I was outside I borrowed Butch’s metal detector and went in search of a couple of tie downs that Joe told us were buried somewhere near the outer edge of our patio awning. I knew they were lined up with a reference mark on one of the concrete patio slabs and it did not take long to locate and uncover them. We put a couple of medium-sized rocks on top of them so we could relocate them easily.

We got several multimedia messages from our son today with pictures of our grand-daughter at our daughter’s house helping make cookies. Brendan, Shawna, and Madeline are spending the night and Katie is joining them tomorrow. Butch and Fonda will spend most of the day at the local church Fonda selected, including a carry-in (pot luck) luncheon, but will have dinner with us around 6:30 PM.

I finally returned to our coach and worked on my article about the Zena power generating system I installed to charge our house batteries while driving. Again, the article was mostly finished a long time ago, but I could not submit it until I completed the installation, got the system operational, and took a few more photos. All of that happened in October and November but I was too busy with other projects and preparations to pull it all together at that time. I had a couple of e-mails today from Gary, the publisher of Bus Conversion Magazine, indicating that the December 2014 issue might not be out until early January 2015, and wondering if I might have a finished article they could use.

For dinner Linda made a salad of dark mixed greens with raisins, nuts, and pear slices drizzled with raspberry walnut vinaigrette dressing followed by pan-seared tofu slices with caramelized onions and bar-b-que sauce served open-faced on hamburger buns. We split a Sam Adams Pumpkin Spice Ale. I am not a big fan of ales or pumpkin but beer seemed like the right beverage for this dish. It was OK, but I would have enjoyed a Yingling or Shiner Bock more.

I made good progress on both articles today. I got an e-mail from Mike, the editor of BCM, wondering if I had a finished article. The ZENA article was close enough that I decided to finish it and upload it to our Dropbox before going to bed. I e-mailed Mike back to let him known it was there and offered to finish the other one by the end of the weekend.

Earlier in the day I updated our personal WordPress site to the just released version 4.1 and updated several plug-ins and themes. My last task before turning in for the night was to replicate the update process on the other three sites I manage. By the time I got to bed it was Christmas Day.

2014/12/25 (R) Christmas in Q

The wind came up strongly overnight and we were awakened by the rattling of the vent fan domes. From our north facing bedroom window we could see flags and the tops of trees blowing briskly in the wind. We could also hear and see the awnings on the south/passenger side of the coach flapping. Linda checked the weather channel app on her iPad and it reported winds at 20 MPH. We were not expecting winds that strong until the daytime and they were strong enough for us to be concerned about our awnings. By that point we were wide awake so we put on our sweatpants and shirts, slipped on some shoes, found a set of keys, got the step-stool out of the front bay and the awning rod out of the folding chair bay, retracted the two awnings, returned the rod and step-stool to their respective storage compartments, and finally went back to bed.

Linda got up at 6:30 AM in order to start making cinnamon rolls from scratch. I usually get up first and make a pot of coffee but I was up past midnight working, so I slept in for another hour. The yeast she bought yesterday wasn’t cooperating so we turned on one of the Broan ceramic cube heaters to try and create a warmer and more consistent environment to get the dough to rise.

We borrowed Butch and Fonda’s Verizon MiFi (unlimited data plan) so we could Facetime with our children and their families, who were gathered at our daughter and son-in-law’s house. We got to watch all of them open the presents we left for them when we were there on Thanksgiving and they got to watch us open the gifts they sent with us or shipped to us here in Quartzsite.

Brendan, Shawna, and Madeline (son, daughter-in-law, and grand-daughter) sent a 2015 Shutterfly Calendar with photographs of all the different family members placed on the dates for birthdays, anniversaries, and such. We do not need much at this point in our lives, but a collection of photographs that also reminds us of the people and dates that are most important to us is something we appreciate and treasure. Meghan and Chris (daughter and son-in-law) bought us each a genuine Tilley hat. I have known about these hats for a while but never bought one. Given our outdoor oriented RV lifestyle, these were excellent gifts.

After we were done with our Facetime session Linda took the cinnamon rolls over to the apartment to bake since it has a range with an oven. She will finish cooking dinner there later and the four of us will eat there this evening as it has a table that will seat four people.

The apartment bedroom.

In spite of early indications to the contrary the cinnamon rolls rose and baked just fine. The dough used flour, salt, vegan butter, yeast, and flax meal with water (egg substitute) and a little sugar. The filling was made with brown sugar, vegan butter, cinnamon, and maple syrup. The topping was a glaze of sugar, water, and vanilla with raisins and chopped walnuts. Linda took two of them over to Butch and Fonda and we had some for breakfast still warm from the oven. It’s a good thing that these are as much work to make as they are or I might want them for breakfast every day. 🙂

Linda had a call and TXT message from her sister (Marilyn) and sent a reply. She was on her way to her housemate’s family gathering and they agreed they would talk later today. She also sent merry Christmas TXT messages to her sister-in-law, Mary, and good friend, Diane. At noon our time (1 PM CST, UTC-6) I called my sister to wish her a happy holiday. Her daughter, grand-daughter, and future son-in-law had already been there in the morning as Ryan had to work that afternoon.

I made a second pot of coffee, which is unusual for us, but we planned to spend the day lounging around the coach cooking (Linda) and working on the computer (me). Linda cleaned up the breakfast cookware, poured another cup of coffee, and started working on the chocolate cake for tonight’s dessert. With the cake prepared and in the apartment oven she turned her attention to making the candied yams. Once those were done the only thing left to do was bake the Tofurkey, roast the asparagus, and heat the gravy. It was a lot work for her but it was spread out over two days and she enjoyed, and did it, willingly. We could have gone out for dinner if she wanted, even though we would not have found much we could eat, but I am glad she preferred to cook.

Once I wrapped up the conversation with my sister I got back to work on the Outside Makeover (Exterior Renovation) article. Although I thought I was done writing I made a few more edits and selected additional photos. By 5 PM I had 74 photos selected and placed in sequence to match the flow of the article. I had also done as much of that work as I cared to for the day.

We were down to 1/4 tank of fresh water so I decided to refill it. About that same time Linda decided it was chilly enough in the apartment that she wanted the propane space heater turned on so I shut off the water and took care of that. The heater had a hose that went through the wall at floor level to the outside with a regulator and POL fitting on the end of it. I found a couple of 20 lb. propane tanks in the workshop and connected one of them to the regulator. It took a while but I eventually got the pilot flame to light and then got the heater to ignite. I then went back and finished filling our water tank.

The little apartment is very cute with three rooms: a bathroom on the east end, a bedroom on the west end, and a kitchen/dining/living room in the middle. It has a shower, a 4-burner electric range with an oven, a refrigerator/freezer, a small microwave oven, the aforementioned space heater, a small window air-conditioner, a small TV/monitor with a satellite receiver, two easy chairs, a small dining table with four chairs, and a queen sized bed. Marilyn is seriously considering coming for a visit the last week of January and if she does she will stay in the apartment and get to experience Quartzsite.

Linda starting to set the table in the apartment for Christmas dinner. No pictures of Butch & Fonda (they are camera shy).

We bought a bottle of Sternthaler Nurnberger Christkindles Gluhwein spiced red holiday wine at Central Market in Fort Worth, Texas to serve with our Christmas dinner. It is a mulled wine that is supposed to be gently heated before serving, but we found it quite agreeable straight from the refrigerator. About 20 minutes before dinner time we set it out on the counter to warm up slightly, the space heater doing a very effective job heating the small apartment even on its lowest setting.

Linda and Fonda both contributed dishes to the meal and Fonda made a couple of things that we could eat. They brought chicken and traditional mashed potatoes for themselves but also tried some of the Tofurkey roast. Linda made a vegan chocolate cake for dessert and whipped refrigerated coconut milk solids to use as a whipped cream substitute. Our daughter did this for the Thanksgiving meal and we really liked it.

We sat in the apartment for a long time after dinner and just talked until we were all tired. Linda and Fonda had already cleaned the dishes so we turned off the propane space heater and carried all of our stuff back to our coaches. Linda put the leftovers away while I did a final check of my e-mail for the night. I then shut my computer off and we headed to bed. Like so many things in our retirement RV lifestyle, this Christmas holiday was a new and good experience.

2014/12/13-16 (S-T) In Q

Leave a reply

2014/12/13 (S) Ahhhh

Linda was very tired last night and was asleep by 10 PM. Although I was up until almost midnight we were both wide awake by 5:30 AM, so I got up and made a full pot of coffee. We enjoyed our brew while watching the slow but inevitable progression of night to day. It was very quiet last night; the only sounds I was aware of were the noises the coach makes (refrigerator and auxiliary air-compressor). The rain last night was gentle and a somewhat rare event for this area at this time of year, so Linda got online with her iPad to check historical weather data and forecasts.

The average rainfall for Quartzsite in December is 0.07 inches, the maximum is 0.7 inches (10 times as much) and the minimum is zero. The average high is in the mid-60s and the average low is in the low-40s. On any given day the forecast is sunny with gentle winds and no fog or rain. January is slightly cooler on average and February warms back up a tad. You can see why people spend the winter months here. Sunrise was at 7:32 AM. We are ~20 miles from the California border, as far west as we can go without moving into the Pacific Time Zone, so sunrise and sunset are later here relative to the local time.

Linda made fresh blueberry vegan pancakes for breakfast with real maple syrup and they were excellent. After breakfast we got out the vacuum cleaner hose and attachments and vacuumed the coach. This terrified the cats, who have limited places to hide, but it had to be done. Linda then mopped the tile floor. She wanted to dust but I suggested the all the cleaning did not have to be done the first morning we were here. She bundled up the trash and took it to the large garbage can and stopped to chat with Fonda and Connie (our landlady) on the way.

Our motorcoach set up in its winter home in Quartzsite, Arizona.

By 8:30 the sun was climbing in the southeastern sky and the coach was warming up a bit. We are parked facing east so we decided to deploy the passenger side awnings (patio and bedroom) which shaded approximately 65% of the upper half of the south-facing side of the coach. Linda then decided we should wash the front of the coach.

I got the step stool and Little Giant ladder out of the front bay while Linda got the collapsible water bucket. We started with the front of the bus using water directly from the tap but it dried too quickly in the sun and left spots. We switched to softened water from our fresh water tank and took a team approach with me scrubbing using a Microfiber sponge and Linda following right behind drying with Microfiber cloths. That seemed to work better.

After we finished the front we moved to the rear. The sun had not yet pulled around to west of south so we did not have direct sunlight on the rear cap. We hooked up our longest hose to the other water softener outlet and then wet the surface, scrubbed the cap with our soft brush, and rinsed it off without using the Microfiber drying clothes. We will clean the two sides of the coach over the coming week, doing a little bit each day. We also deployed the awnings on the driver (north) side of bus just to unwind them and let them air out and dry. We then set out our patio mat and welcome mat and our two bag chairs, completing our cleaning work for the day.

Butch spent some time emptying out their Suburban so we could explore Quartzsite in one vehicle. We all had lunch and then headed off to explore our winter home town. Fonda wanted to locate a church where she could attend services on Sunday mornings so we found one that looked like it might suit her. We drove down Main Street and Kuehn Street checking out the vendors and ended up at Big Market on west Main Street where we bought some grocery items and postcards.

Back at the ranch we settled in for a while before dinner. I worked at my computer and started checking up on e-mail, which I had not done in several days. I had a few from Gary, the publisher of Bus Conversion Magazine, and replied to those. I also spent a little time in RVillage and updated our profile. Jim Liebherr (Joe’s brother) came around to collect the first month’s rent and clarified access to the laundry room.

View of our motorcoach looking NE from Lollipop Ln. There are mountains in the distance to right of the rig.

For dinner Linda made a green salad using spinach, Mandarin oranges, and walnuts with a raspberry walnut vinaigrette dressing. She then prepared a zoodle dish using a tool called a “SpiraLife” that spiral slices vegetables with or without cross-cutting them. The cross-cut mode turns carrots, zucchini, etc. into long slender strips like flat pasta. She spiral sliced a zucchini and used it instead of wheat pasta in an olive oil sauté with mushrooms, onions, garlic, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes. Some vegan “Parmesan” cheese on top, bread on the side, and a glass of Pinot Noir to wash it down made for a wonderful, healthy meal.

Linda found information online that suggested we should have anywhere from 11 to 21 over-the-air (OTA) TV channels. The Huffington Post even had the complete programming schedule for Quartzsite by channel and time-of-day. Our TV sets normally scan for standard OTA channels, both analog (very few left) and digital. We used both the front and rear TV to repeatedly scan for signals, pointing our amplified directional antennas around an entire 360 degrees, but did not find a single station.

The TV sets can also scan for QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) signals. We had to obtain an Access Code from the Westinghouse support website and enter it into the front TV to get it to scan for QAM signals, but it did not find any of those either. I called Butch to see if they had tried tuning in any stations. They had tried and got the same results as us. It’s not a big deal, the only TV we watch at home is streamed over the Internet, but it was puzzling as we saw lots of TV antennas around town. Most of them, however, where on top of tall poles.

The overnight low was forecast to be 41 degrees F and by 9 PM it had cooled off in the coach quite a bit. I decided to shut my computer for the evening and head to bed where we have a dual control electric heating pad to keep each of us in our own comfort zone. As sometimes happens, Microsoft decided that my computer needed to be updated. This often turns out be a recursive experience and tonight was no exception. Five updates were initially downloaded and installed, requiring a restart of the computer. After it rebooted and finished starting up I tried to shut it off again and there were six more updates, requiring another restart. I checked again after it rebooted and finished starting up and it appeared to be done, but I decided to leave it on overnight in case additional updates wanted to make their presence known.

I turned up the temperature on my side of the electric heating pad, got cozy under lots of covers, wrote for a while, and turned off the lights. It was a good first full day in Q.

2014/12/14 (N) Parker, AZ

The temperature in our motorcoach dropped below 60 early in the morning and the Aqua-Hot bedroom zone pump and heat exchanger fans came on even though we did not have a heat source turned on. That was because I had failed to turn the thermostat off before going to bed last night. With a 50 Amp shorepower connection I would have turned the three electric toe-kick heaters on, but with our 30 Amp connection I turned on the diesel burner and the electric heating element. Twenty minutes later the coach was warming up and I turned the electric element off so Linda could start cooking breakfast.

Linda made a tofu scramble using a different recipe that did not call for nutritional yeast as she forgot to pack any. We had sourdough toast with strawberry jam to go with the scramble, grapefruit juice, and coffee. Always coffee. After breakfast Linda went for a walk while I stayed at the bus. When she got back from her walk and Fonda got back from Church we discussed driving to the Wal-Mart in Parker, Arizona for groceries and sundry items. Butch left seating for four people in their Suburban so after lunch, he drove all of us to Parker.

See the mountains? Quartzsite is surrounded by mountains!

What we saw of Parker looked like a nice little town. The Wal-Mart had a reasonable variety and quantity of fresh produce and we got most of the items on our shopping list. We noticed when pulling out that there was a Safeway supermarket across the street with a CVS Pharmacy next door. Parker is located on the Arizona side of the Colorado River and is the county seat for La Paz County which includes Quartzsite. It is also the location of the tribal headquarters for the Colorado River Indian Tribes, a consortium of tribes with reservations along both sides of the Colorado River for many miles north and south of Parker. The Bluewater Resort and Casino is one of the attractions in town.

Back at our winter home base we unloaded our groceries and then sat outside to read, write, and surf the web. It was cool in the shade and warm in sun. We chatted with Connie for a while and then retreated to our coach as the outside air temperature dropped. Linda had picked up a guide to the Lower Colorado River region while walking this morning so I settled in to read it. As it got dark Linda assembled our dinner. We had another nice salad, a bowl of the left-over curry, some bread, and finished the bottle of Pinot Noir. We read for a while after dinner and then went to bed.

2014/12/15 (M) Hard Water

The outside temperature dropped to 38 degrees F overnight, colder than at our house back in Michigan, but the high there won’t make it past 50, which is above average for this time of year, while the high here will be in the low 60s, which is normal. Add in the warmth of direct sunshine here and you typically have shirtsleeve weather.

I turned on the Aqua-Hot at 6:30 AM and went back to bed for half an hour while the coach warmed up. When I got up I put on the new sweatshirt and sweatpants that we bought yesterday and made a pot of coffee. We got the sweat clothing yesterday to wear in the coach while lounging around in the morning. I only brought a lightweight robe from home, and Linda only brought a lightweight nightshirt, both of which proved to be inadequate against the morning chill.

After breakfast we took showers and then called the Escapees RV Club to register for the Escapade rally and clarify the process for ordering clothing. I got transferred to Kim’s voice-mail and left my information. Rather than hang around the coach waiting for a return phone call we walked to “downtown” Quartzsite. Main Street is only 8/10ths of a mile straight south of our location and is only two miles long from Exit 19 to exit 17 of I-10. The city is basically four square miles (2×2)—with most of it north of I-10—and is flat terrain, so it’s a compact, easy place to get around on foot or bicycle.

Our first stop was the post office so Linda could mail a few postcards. There was quite a crowd there picking up and dropping off mail. From what we understand mail does not get delivered to street addresses here so everyone has a P. O. Box. UPS, however, does deliver to street addresses. We went next door to the Chamber of Commerce trailer and picked up a couple more maps and some flyers and booklets on area attractions. We also bought a pair of Quartzsite 2014-2015 Snowbird commemorative pins. We then walked to the west end of Main Street and wandered through the Main Event warehouse building. They sell all manner of inexpensive (cheap) Chinese tools but we did not buy anything on this visit.

Joe & Connie’s park model trailer as viewed through the cactus garden by our coach.

We crossed Main Street to the McDonalds, had some French fries, and used the restrooms. We did not see any signs for “public” restrooms on our walk today, so the fast food places and truck stops were important pedestrian waypoints. We headed back east on Main Street and stopped at Big Market to check out the hardware portion of the store. Butch went through it the other day and said it was surprisingly good given its size. Having now seen it for myself I have to agree with his assessment.

Most north-south roads in Q are Avenues while larger E-W roads are Streets. Studying the map we got from the Chamber of Commerce it appears that Avenues and Streets connect to other roads at each end and/or at intermediate points. Dead end roads are usually named Lanes, but a few are Roads, Drives, or Trails. There are only four Avenues that run all the way from Main Street to the north end of town. From east to west they are Plymouth Ave., Central Ave. (AZ-95), Moon Mtn. Ave., and Kofa Ave. Tyson’s Wash runs north-south between Central Ave. and Moon Mtn. Ave. Perhaps because of the wash, or perhaps for other reasons, there are only three streets that run all the way through from east to west. Tyson St. is essentially the north edge of town while Main St. and Kuehn St. parallel I-10 on the north and south side respectively.

We got back to our coach a little after 1 PM. Cool air temperatures and cloudy skies made it a less comfortable day to sit outside so we gathered up our soiled clothes and Linda took them over to the laundry room. Because this is private property, not a large commercial RV park, the laundry room is just that, a room with a standard residential washer and dryer. They are not coin operated so usage is on the honor system; $2 per load (washed and dried). We are keeping a log of the loads we do and will add the corresponding cost to our rent or electrical bill next month.

Linda sliced an apple, got out the hummus, and put out some baby carrots, pieces of cauliflower, and broccoli along with pita chips. As we finished our late lunch/snack I noticed that Butch was working in his engine bay. That meant he was probably doing something with the air-compressor so I went over to find out exactly what he was up to and see if I could be of any assistance. He was unbolting the compressor from the engine block so he could pull it away from the back of the engine and check the drive gears and spline. It turned out that I had several socket wrench related tools with me that he needed, so that was my contribution to the process.

Once he had the compressor unbolted and pulled away from the block he was able to determine that there wasn’t anything wrong with the drive gear on the end of the camshaft or with the free-floating spline. The Bakelite gear was also still intact and the compressor was not seized. Based on a conversation he had with Bill at U. S. Coach the only thing that appeared to be amiss was a missing spring. The purpose of the spring is to keep the Bakelite gear engaged with the spline. Lots of grease packed behind the Bakelite gear can have the same effect as the spring, at least for a while. Since Butch had already done some of the hardest work required to remove the compressor he was still leaning towards buying a rebuilt unit and installing it. The “engine” in their bus was newly rebuilt when they bought it, but all of the accessories that attach to it, including the air-compressor, were not.

We did not fill our fresh water tank when we dumped our waste water at the Dream Catcher SKP RV Park on Thursday morning. After five days of heavier use, including showers, it was nearing empty and needed to be refilled. We try to fill it with softened water whenever possible and then use the water from the tank. On the road it is via our portable water softener. This approach keeps the water in the tank from going stale and also allows us to track how many times we have run a tank’s worth of water (100 – 125 gallons) through the softener. The number of gallons we can soften depends on the hardness of the water. We tested the city water in Q when we got here and it is very hard. It probably comes from very deep wells.

I borrowed a test strip from Butch to check the hardness of the water coming out of our softener. To my dismay, it was the same as the water going in. In other words, the softener wasn’t doing anything. That meant I had to recharge (regenerate) it before I could use it to fill the fresh water tank. It was near sunset, which meant most this work was done the dark. Bad planning on my part, but there it is.

I like our little portable softener but have never been satisfied with the recharge procedure. I followed the directions but without much success and with what I thought was way too much wasted water. After unscrewing the filter housing on the softener inlet and removing the filter I filled the housing ~3/4s full with non-iodized table salt. I inserted the special plastic tube onto the outflow port inside the head and then worked the housing up and screwed it into place. I tried using a trickle flow and also full inlet water pressure with a constricted outlet flow. I checked every half hour for two hours, but most of the salt was still there.

The view to the SW from our patio. Just over those mountains is California!

The problem was obvious to me. When a filter is installed in the housing it is sealed at the top and bottom by a post (bottom) and the outlet port (top). Water flows into the housing around the outside of the filter, through the filter media, and up the hollow center of the filter and out the port. What I needed was a tube that was exactly the same inside diameter and length as a standard filter, so it would seal on both ends, but with holes near the bottom. This would force water, under pressure, to flow down through the salt, through the holes, and up through the tube and into the softener where it could restore the ion exchange capability of the resin media. I jury-rigged just such a solution by taking the old filter and drilling 1/4″ holes around the bottom. Not my best piece of work, but it finally got the job done. I plan to make a better, more permanent, version of this solution sometime soon.

When all of the salt had finally been dissolved and run through the softener I removed the modified filter from the housing, rinsed it out, and installed a new 5 micron filter cartridge. The housing was leaking and I thought it was the plastic NPT nipple so I released any residual pressures and unscrewed the filter head from the threaded pipe. I cleaned the old Teflon tape out of the threads, wrapped new tape around them, and screwed the filter housing head back on the nipple. Fonda had wandered over by this time and was holding the flashlight which was a great help. It turned out that the problem was a missing O-ring; it fell out of the housing when I dumped it out. By chance I was walking around the back of the bus (with a flashlight), where I had dumped out the housing, and spotted it on the ground. I cleaned it off, put it back in, re-installed the new 5 micron filter element into the housing, and screwed it back onto the head. Valves open; pressure good; no leaks; good to go.

I opened the valve to fill the fresh water tank and went inside for a while. It took about 30 minutes to fill the main tank because the 5 micron filter does not pass water as quickly as the 20 micron that was in there. There is also a “whole house” filter housing installed in the water bay. As best I can tell, all of the water entering the coach goes through that filter, whether directly to the plumbing or into the fresh water tank (which is filled by opening a valve plumbed into the main supply line to the house). What I need to do now is replace that filter cartridge with a carbon element that removes chlorine and other such things. We also have a 1 micron drinking/cooking water filter under the kitchen sink that removes five or six different things. By the time I turned off the water, closed all of the supply valves, and went inside it was 9:45 PM so I grabbed my iPad and headed to bed.

2014/12/16 (T) Shopping In Q

Connie asked me last night if we would help her load her car today and of course we agreed. Our “landlady” for the winter is a truly delightful person. She has limited mobility but gets around without complaint. She’s picking Joe up from the care facility on Wednesday afternoon and bringing him here so we will finally get to meet him in person. Their sons are driving down from their homes in Nevada on Friday after work and taking the whole family back on Saturday.

Linda went for her morning power walk and I started working on cleaning up my e-mail inboxes. While Linda was gone Connie indicated that she was ready to start loading her car so I took care of that task. It was not a big or heavy job, but was more than Connie could do. I was close to being done when Linda returned and Butch/Fonda emerged from their bus. We all stood around chatting for a while and Connie invited us in to see the park model trailer she and Joe live in when they are here. It was not large but was more spacious than either of our buses.

Butch and I headed into town while Fonda and Linda stayed in camp. Linda wanted to work on her cross-stitch project and Fonda had things to do. We stopped at the Tool Mart at the Main Event on the west end of Main Street and each picked up some odds and ends tools. We then drove across to the south side of I-10 and headed west in search of the home where Fonda wants to attend a women’s bible study group on Wednesdays. The house we were looking for was in a development on the other side of the first ridge of mountains that lie SW of Quartzite. We found the development and the house without difficulty. Both were nice but the location was a bit surreal; I mean this development was in the middle of nowhere surrounded by low mountains. Butch captured the location in his GPS so that Fonda could find her way here and back tomorrow.

We drove back into Q, staying on the south side of I-10, and checked out the various vendors. We spotted the M & T Enterprises RV water filter store and pulled in to park. We spent some time there talking to the owner. They were one of the vendors selling an OTA TV antenna and had one set up on top of a 20 foot pole. The unit had a built-in rotator, and they claimed they were able to get 21 channels, but they said all of the signals were coming from the NNE to NE. Other folks have told us that the only signals in town are from Yuma, 85 miles away in a S to SSW direction. That seems unlikely given the terrain.

We walked down a few booths to the east to K & B Tool. Among many other things they sell the aluminum tent poles that are being used to get the aforementioned TV antennas up in the air. Our final stop was at Discount Solar at the NE corner of Main Street and Plymouth Ave. Butch bought all of their solar equipment from Discount Solar some years ago and thinks highly of the owners and staff. We were treated most cordially and they took time to talk to both of us. Butch is considering buying some Full River AGM batteries from them and I was just curious about what they had.

We have two humingbird feeders in the cactus garden by our coach. Look carefully to the right of the feeder.

When we got back to camp I had some of the leftover curry for lunch with some hot tea to help me warm up. Heavy clouds set in over the course of the afternoon and the air temperature was cool enough that I got slightly chilled. In spite of the chill, Linda went outside to continue working on her cross-stitch project. Butch set up their two-burner propane stove and made candy as he wanted to give some to Joe and Connie as a gift before they left on Saturday. With all that work going on around me I decided to take a nap.

Linda made a black beans and rice dish for dinner along with a green salad, both of which were very tasty. We bought a box of Franzia Sangria at Big Market the other day and finally tried it this evening. As with most of the Franzia wines it was not outstanding but also not offensive. Among inexpensive wines the Red Guitar Sangria is much fruitier and I like it better. While I would prefer a better wine, the Franzia boxed wines are around $13 for 5 liters, fit nicely in the refrigerator, can be consumed over a long time (at least eight weeks), and minimize garbage and recycling. All of those are positive attributes when living in the motorhome. We had fresh strawberries later for dessert, which are always a treat.

Our son (Brendan) sent a TXT message with a picture of our grand-daughter (Madeline) and the ornaments she had hung on their Christmas tree. She put five of them in a group at her eye level. She will be two years old in two more days and is fully aware that special things are happening and that she is a full participant in them, if not the center of attention. After dinner I resumed the task of cleaning up e-mails. I always promise myself that I will do better at managing my e-mails, but I never do.

2014/04/23 (W) Lincoln Birthplace

2 Replies

We were going to visit Bowling Green, Kentucky today but decided to put that off until tomorrow. The overnight temperature dipped down into the low 40’s, and only rose to 66 degrees F for a high, but it was a clear sunny day and we decided to explore the area NNE of our campground. This is the area of Kentucky where Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America, was born and spent his early childhood.

Entrance sign to the ALBNHP in Hodgenville, Kentucky.

We left around 10:30 AM and took KY-70 to US-31E and headed north towards Hodgenville. Just south of Hodgenville was the entrance to the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park (ALBNHP). Admission was free. In typical NPS fashion, the Visitor Center had excellent displays and a theater running a well made 15 minute documentary on Lincoln’s birth and early life. And yes, one of the displays was “Lincoln Logs,” one of my favorite childhood toys. One of the things we learned from the film was the difference between pioneers, like Daniel Boone, who forged trails into the Kentucky wilderness, and frontiersman, like Abe’s parents, who followed the pioneers and settled at the edge of the expanding nation.

Lincoln’s ancestors, as recently as his grandparents, had been true pioneers, coming through the Cumberland Gap with the likes of Daniel Boone, but his parents were not. When he was born on February 12, 1809 his parents had already purchased Sinking Spring farm and were working the land like many other families in the area. Although they lived in a one room log cabin typical of the region at that time, Lincoln’s father, Thomas, was in the top 20% of taxpayers in the county. Frontier life was hard and uncertain but Lincoln was not born into poverty.

From the Visitor Center a trail lead out around behind the building and gently climbed to the top of a hill where the Lincoln Centennial Monument is located. The cornerstone was laid by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1909 and the completed monument was dedicated by President Taft. Fifty-six granite steps, one for each year of Lincoln’s life, led up to the Monument from the Sinking Spring.

The monument houses a one room log cabin believed, at the time of the monument’s construction, to be the actual Lincoln family cabin where Abraham was born. It was eventually established, many years later, that Lincoln was not born in this cabin as the trees used for the timbers first grew almost 40 years later. The cabin, however, is absolutely authentic and representative of the design, materials, and building techniques used in the region at the time of Lincoln’s birth, and is now preserved in a climate-controlled building. Over the years the cabin has become a treasured icon representing the moment and point of origin of the man many believe was the greatest leader the nation has ever had.

When Lincoln was only two years old his parents lost Sinking Spring in an ownership dispute and moved about eight miles northeast, up what is now US-31E, and rented a 30 acre farm on Knob Creek. The site is now the Lincoln Boyhood Home Unit of the ALBNHP. Lincoln said many years later that his first childhood memories were from the Knob Creek homestead. He only had two years of formal schooling and they occurred while his family lived at Knob Creek.

It is known that Abe and his older sister, Sarah, walked two miles (one way) from Knob Creek to the schoolhouse in Atherton. It was not uphill both ways but it was, apparently, a difficult journey for them. Lessons were done by recitation as there were no writing supplies. Abraham, however, was reportedly fascinated by letters and taught himself to write. The two years that he attended this school were the only formal schooling he ever received.

Also of note from this time and place in Lincoln’s life was the existence of slavery and his family’s involvement with the strongly anti-slavery local Baptist church. Although Lincoln’s association with Indiana, Illinois, Washington, D.C. and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania is undoubtedly better known it was clear from our visit that the region and circumstances of his birth and earliest years were the clay out of which his adult character was ultimately molded. However, once his parents moved across the Ohio River to Indiana, again because of an ownership dispute with the Knob Creek farm, it appears that Abe never returned to the place of his birth.

While we were walking along Knob Creek we noticed a group of butterflies gathered on the ground busily engaged in something. Only after we got back to our coach was Linda able to identify them as Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies. The behavior we observed was “puddling” in which the males (primarily) gather in groups to extract sodium ions and amino acids from damp or muddy soils and gravel. Those were precisely the conditions we found along the edge of the creek.

We met a couple from Chicago in the parking lot who were staying in Bardstown, on up US-31E to the northeast, and suggested that it was worth the drive. Along the way we saw the sign for the Abbey at Gethsemani, a Trappist Monk monastery, so we took KY-246 to the monastery entrance. Descended from the monasteries of St. Benedict (ca. 1177) this was a Cistercian order of monks. The grounds and buildings were beautiful, simple, and serene, as you would expect from a place devoted to a life of worship, contemplation, and simple manual labor. The Visitor Center and gift shop featured items made by these and other monks to support their way of life. A small theater showed an informative 20 minute film about life at the monastery. Unfortunately for us the monks at this Abbey make cheese and fudge, neither of which we eat.

We continued on to Bardstown and found a place to park on the traffic circle surrounding the building that houses the visitor center and county offices. Bardstown is an old (late 1700’s) but happening city, the largest we have visited since arriving at Cave Country RV CG. The region around Bardstown is the center of the Kentucky Bourbon industry. Barton’s 1792 Bourbon distillery is located on the south edge of town and Maker’s Mark distillery is only 16 miles to the southeast. We Googled Whiskey vs. Bourbon and found out that Bourbon IS whiskey, but made to very specific criteria. Bourbon is made mostly from corn mash and comes only from the U. S.; mostly from Kentucky. Scotch is whiskey made in Scotland. Irish whiskey is whiskey made in Ireland. There are lots of subtle variations on this, but that’s the gist of it.

We checked out The Talbott Tavern, which dated from 1796 and is still in operation. We would have loved to have lunch or dinner in this authentic and quaint setting, but our only menu option would have been a salad, so we strolled through town instead. There were many old houses dating from 1790 – 1820, and the commercial buildings on the streets around the circle were mostly pre Civil War. Crume drug store had been in continuous operation for over 150 years.

We headed back towards Cave City on US-31E but rather than retrace our route we took KY-84 west just south of Hodgenville and then headed south on KY-357 to Munfordville. Along the way we stopped at an IGA and bought a bag of Romaine salad greens and a couple bottles of water. We picked up US-31W in Munfordville and followed it south through Horse Cave to Cave City where we took KY-70 back to Cave Country RV Campground.

For dinner Linda pan-fried firm tofu slices (~1/2″ thick) with onions until caramelized, added a sweet bar-b-que sauce, and served it open-faced on some whole wheat hot dog buns we still had. A simple green salad and small glass of sangria made it a meal. Afterwards Linda read while I worked on this post and edited photographs of our visit to the land of Lincoln’s birth.

The Phase Place

Welcome to the next phase (hosted by QTH.com)

Tag Archives: Sangria (Franzia)

2014/12/26-31 (F-W) Wrapping Up 2014

2014/12/21-25 (N-R) The Holidays Arrive

2014/12/13-16 (S-T) In Q

2014/04/23 (W) Lincoln Birthplace