Tag Archives: vegan

2016/02/12-15 (F–M) Everglades Update

2016/02/12 (F) Full Circle

We got up, showered, got dressed, and went down to breakfast around 8 AM. We were packed, checked out, and had the car loaded by 9 AM. We headed north on the Ronald Reagan Turnpike, exited at some miles later, and headed west. FL-94 ended at FL-997 where we headed north. In looking at a map later, we would probably have been better off to get on FL-997 right from the hotel. There was major road construction on FL-997 all the way to US-41, but traffic moved along at the 50 MPH posted speed limit.

At US-41 we headed west. This is Miccosukee Indian territory, as indicated by the Miccosukee Resort and Gaming facility (Casino) at the NW corner of Fl-997 and US-41. A short way to the west this stretch of US-41 (the Tamiami Highway between Tampa and Miami) is bordered by Everglades National Park on the south and the Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area on the north. It eventually leaves both of these and runs through the heart of the Big Cypress National Preserve.

We pulled in to the ENP entrance for the Shark Valley Visitor Center and immediately and got stuck in the line of cars waiting to get in. The parking lot had filled a few cars ahead of us and it was now a one car out, one car in situation.

Once we were in we checked out the tram ride to the Shark Valley Observatory Tower seven miles one way due south into the Everglades. It was a two (2) hour narrated round-trip and cost $24 per person ($19 for seniors). You can hike or bike out to the tower for free (after gaining admission to the NP). We did not have that much time so we walked part way down the road along an open channel of water about 15 feet wide and found lots of wildlife photo opportunities, including birds, a large turtle, and alligators. The most interesting thing we saw was a cluster of at least a dozen young alligators, ranging from one to two feet in length, piled up on top of one another.

A little farther west we left US-41 and drove a small 2-lane road for 38 miles. The first half was paved and the second half was good gravel. It was a lovely, slow drive with a maximum speed limit of 30 MPH and a few nature photo opportunities along the way.

A Black Vulture near the Shark Valley Visitor Center, Everglades NP, FL.

After rejoining US-41 we continued west through the Big Cypress National Preserve as far as FL-29 with Everglades NP once again on our left. We then headed south through Everglades City and re-entered the park. The Gulf Coast Visitor Center was very small and did not have the ENP shirts we had seen at the Flamingo Visitor Center and were now hoping to buy. The vendor operated gift store did not have them either. The only things you can do from this point in the park are explore the NW coastal portions by canoe, kayak, or pontoon boat. We did not have time for any of that on this quick visit so we pulled up the address for our RV park in the GPS unit and pushed on.

We had a better look at Everglades City on the way out of town and decided that it was an interesting looking little place. A traveling carnival of some considerable size was setting up in the middle of town, literally.

Back at US-41 we continued west as we were still somewhat east of the north-south line through Arcadia. The only other route home from here would take us north on FL-29 and then back east on I-75 and eventually back through LaBelle and up the west side of Lake Okeechobee. That would be a much longer trip and it was already starting to feel like it had been a long day.

We left US-41 at Collier Blvd. and traveled north about seven miles to I-75 north. Traffic was heavy, congested, and stop-n-go initially but eventually freed up. We traveled about 39 miles to exit 141 at Ft. Myers and headed east a few miles to FL-31. Our final 38 miles were straight north to Arcadia where FL-31 ends at FL-70 just west of our RV resort.

From the Shell station in Arcadia on Tuesday morning to our coach at 5:45 PM today we put 919.4 miles on the car’s trip odometer. The speedometer on the car reads slightly high, probably because the tires are not factory original specifications, so our actual mileage may have been slightly less by about one mile for every 60 miles traveled. That would be approximately 15 miles for our trip, making the actual mileage perhaps 905 for the four days, for an average of 225 to 230 miles per day. That’s a lot of driving, but the purpose of our trip was to get a first glimpse at a lot of south Florida that we had not seen before.

We brought a few things in from the car, spent some time with our cats, and then visited with Ron and Vera (who did not even realize we were gone), before walking over to Mara’ rig for dinner. Mara made a pot of vegan chili and a wonderful salad which we enjoyed with a glass of her favorite Malbec. We talked about our trip, how the kitties did in our absence, and discussed the logistics of Michael’s upcoming visit. We returned to our coach around 9:15 PM, finished unloading the car, unpacked a few things, adored our cats, and relaxed with our iPads for an hour before going to bed.

2016/02/13 (S) Yard Sale

I was up at 7:30 AM, partially prepped the coffee, and then unpacked clothes and hung them up or put them in the laundry hamper. Linda got up sometime after, after which I ground the coffee beans and finished making our morning coffee.

We noticed last night that a few folks had things sitting out in their front yards suggestive of a garage sale. This morning there was quite a bit of commotion outside and we noticed several yards just from our rig with lots of stuff sitting out on tables and/or the ground. Clearly Big Tree Carefree RV Resort was having an official yard sale event today.

We had granola for breakfast and then strolled through the resort. Based on one comment we overheard we got the impression that the yard sale might have started yesterday but there was still lots of stuff available. We are not yard sale people, as a rule, and our real destination was the laundry room. Most of the parking spaces were taken but the room was empty and none of the machines were in use. We walked back to our coach, loaded our laundry, computers, and iPads in the car, and drove over to the laundry room.

I got the laundry into a washing machine while Linda got her computer going and connected to the park Wi-Fi system. I then started my computer and got online. Her computer screen came up dark. It has done this many times in the past, but not recently. We think it may be related to the battery, but we are not sure.

Our main reason for bringing our computers over was to download our e-mails from the last four days. BCM, in particular, has a habit of sending me large files as e-mail attachments or links to large files in a Dropbox, which I prefer. I had at least 118 e-mails but no large attachments. I did not get a count from Linda. Both of our computers are also set up to automatically sync our Dropbox account, and one of the things it does is automatically backup four WordPress websites. We only had 2.5 GB of data left on our Verizon account to get us through February 19th, so we wanted to transfer as much data as possible via the park Wi-Fi system.

Once the laundry was dry, folded, and hung, we returned to our coach where Linda put on her swimsuit and then joined Mara at the pool. After putting the clean clothes away I rebooted and reconnected our computers and iPads to our local network and turned on the NAS. Once everything was up and running I connected the camera and off-loaded all of the photos from the last four days; just over 400 total. I got a bite to eat and then put on my swimsuit, gathered up my towel and a pair of dry shorts, and went over to the pool to join the ladies.

A Purple Gallinule near the Shark Valley Visitors Center, Everglades NP, FL.

When I arrived Linda and Mara were sunbathing. The pool was cool even though it is heated but once I was in and swimming gently I generated enough heat from muscle activity to be comfortable. I swam for about 1/2 hour and then sat in the hot tub with the whirlpool turned on and positioned myself to vigorously message my lower back. Linda had taken the soap when she went so I took that along with my towel and shorts and used to shower to rinse off the chlorine and get cleaned up. I returned the soap to Linda and walked back to our coach.

I doodled on my iPad while Linda read a book when she returned to the coach. She left at 4 PM to walk to the grocery store with Mara while I laid down on the sofa to take a nap and Jasper curled up next to me. I was aware of Linda’s return, gradually woke up, and finally got up.

Linda invited Mara to come for dinner. While she busied herself with the preparations, I went through all of the photos from our trip to Everglades National Park and Key West and backed them up to our NAS.

While I was looking at photos ESET Smart Security kept popping up messages letting me know that it needed my attention. I opened it and it presented me with a loooong list of critical and recommended updates. Given our data situation this month I deferred those until I can take my computer back to the office/laundry/activity building and use the resort Wi-Fi system.

For dinner Linda made a nice green salad and a “pasta” dish using an edamame and mung bean fettuccine style noodle. Mara came to our coach around 6:45 PM and brought a vegan chocolate mousse for dessert. It was based on blended avocados and it was a delicious finale to a scrumptious meal. There was a nice orange glow in the western sky but it was too dark by then to eat outside. It was also getting chilly following sunset so we ate inside and polished off a bottle of Barefoot Pinot Grigio between the three of us.

Mara left a little before 9 PM and we turned on the TV to see if anything interesting was on. One of the PBS stations was showing a three part drama titled Arthur & George based on a true life event in the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and starting Martin Clunes (Doc Martin) as Doyle. Linda went to bed part way through the third episode but I stayed up to watch it as it was very well done. I flipped channels for a while after that but nothing else held my attention and I finally went to bed sometime after midnight.

2016/02/14 (N) Valentine’s Day

We were still tired from out whirlwind trip to south Florida and slept in this morning. When we finally got up Linda made pancakes for breakfast, this being Sunday and all.

It’s a good thing we have our 2 GB of bonus data for the next couple of billing cycles. Between the Windows 10 upgrade on two computers (most of which we did using the RV resort Wi-Fi), the upgrades to the iOS on both iPads, the inevitable updates to applications on all four devices, and quite a bit of work on BCM articles as well as our personal website/blog, we have had to monitor/manage our data usage very carefully for the January 20 through February 19 billing cycle. Even with being gone for four days to the Everglades and Keys, and taking our devices to the activity building to use the Wi-Fi, we will be very close to our limit by this Friday, which is the 19th.

There are at least eight alligators in this image and several more outside the frame. Shark Valley Visitors Center, Everglades NP, FL.

My computer was indicating that I had 22 updates available which meant that Linda’s computer probably had a similar number. One of them was a Windows 10 cumulative update which I knew would be large so I took both computers to the library and did the updates there. I then spent part of the day processing and backing up photos before turning my attention to blog posts. Even with our data situation I uploaded several from mid-October and prepared several more.

We had a relatively easy day otherwise and I did not record all of the details which are now mostly lost to me. Brenda Phelan called around 5:15 PM to let me know our tire and windshield covers were ready but she and Bill were headed out for a couple of days on windshield cover appointments. They would be back on Wednesday and we deferred dealing with delivery until then.

For dinner Linda made a mushroom bourginione with macaroni. She used a Lindeman’s 2014 Shiraz to make it and we also drank some before/with our meal. She bought a pint of Soy Delicious Cookie Dough non-dairy “ice cream” the other day and we had that for dessert. After dinner we settled in to watch our Sunday evening TV programs, including Downton Abby.

2016/02/15 (M) Ready, Set, No

We had our usual morning of coffee, juice, and granola for breakfast. Our fresh water tank had dropped below the 1/3 level yesterday or the day before. The monitor only indicates Empty, 1/3, 2/3, and Full so once it drops below 1/3rd I have to check it visually. Fortunately the tank is translucent polyethylene and is located behind a door such that I can see the water level when the lighting is right. Given how we are parked, facing southwest, the light is best in the morning as access to the tank is from the driver side of the bay.

The tank was down to the 1/8th level, which is about 15 gallons. We might have gotten one more day’s use but there was no reason to run the tank dry and the pump works better with a full tank. I dumped both waste tanks and refilled the fresh water tank. I checked the hardness of the water coming out of the softener after the tank was full and it was indicating somewhere between 0 and 1.5 gpg. I updated my Excel spreadsheet accordingly.

An Anhinga that just caught something to eat. Shark Valley Visitors Center, Everglades NP, FL.

Linda had work to do today on family tax returns and set up her computer on the temporary dining table while I continued to work at my computer on the desk. I selected and processed a couple of photos from our visit to Everglades National Park for Linda’s weekly postcard to Madeline. I then selected and processed photos to include in the blog posts for the dates of our visit to the Everglades and Keys.

Brenda Phelan had also sent us an e-mail yesterday regarding our tire covers. I replied to that and indicated that we might pick them up on Wednesday when she and Bill are back at their shop in Lakeland. With that done I started preparing for a 3:30 PM telecom meeting of the FMCA National Education Committee. I printed off six documents: meeting notice, agenda/notes, short survey results and sampling information, and the long survey results and sampling information. All told it was 55 sheets of paper, but I wanted/needed to see the survey results printed out.

At 3:29 I dialed in and was the first caller, which I though was odd. I doubled checked the meeting notice and realized the meeting was Wednesday the 17th. I knew that, but historically we have always met on Monday afternoons and I just had it in my head that we were meeting today. The upside us that I have more time to digest the data and think about how I want to handle the fact that the sample/response was too small (in my expert opinion) for the results to be considered representative of the FMCA population.

We had leftovers for dinner, after which we settled in to watch the X-Files and Lucifer on FOX as our usual Monday evening programs on CBS were preempted by the Grammy Awards, which did not interest us. At 10 PM we switched to PBS and watched a documentary on Stephen Hawking, followed Charlie Rose. Rose’s show was focused on Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scilia, who passed away over the weekend.

2015/11/28 (S) Berea to Cartersville

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I did not take any Ibuprofen before I went to bed last night as I felt OK. I was also very tired and fell asleep without difficulty around 9:30 PM. Under the best of circumstances I was going to be awake between 4:30 and 5:30 AM and that was the case this morning. During that hour the cats prowled around the bed, got some attention from me, and looked out the windows. What they really wanted, however, was food.

The pickup truck / 5th wheel combination that pulled in on our passenger side last night well after sunset was making departure preparations this morning at 5:30. The strained muscle(s) in my lower right back were nagging at me and, unable to find a comfortable position, I finally got up at 6 AM as the neighbors were pulling out. I sat on the sofa with the heater pad on my back and worked on my iPad.

The cats still had food and water but wanted fresh kibble, as they do every morning and evening. It was in the bathroom closet, where it always is, but took me a while to find as it was hiding in plain sight behind the lower rack of hanging clothes. Linda finally got up at 6:30 AM. She rarely sleeps 10 or more hours but she was very tired when she went to bed at 8 PM last night and immediately fell asleep. She also appears to be coming down with yet another cold. For someone who rarely gets sick she has suffered with colds this fall.

We only had 300 miles to travel today, all on I-75, between Berea, Kentucky and Cartersville, Georgia. With a fuel stop somewhere along the way it should only be a six hour day. We got online and checked the weather. Rain was forecast to start in Berea around 10 AM so we targeted 8:30 to 9 AM as our departure window and decided to have coffee and breakfast. The cold front was sitting to our west running from southwest to northeast. It was moving slowly southeast but the precipitation (mostly rain but with some ice and snow) was along the front and sliding northeast. Based on how it was moving we figured we would probably have rain between Berea and Knoxville and then dry conditions from there to Cartersville where the chance of rain for today was 0%.

I had the engine running at 8:30 AM. The battery balance light came on and stayed on for quite a while but eventually turned off and did not come back on. That may just mean the Vanner equalizer was just doing its job. However, with the upper and lower banks of the chassis batteries on maintenance chargers since we got here yesterday that just begs the question why they were out of balance. We may be replacing the batteries and/or the Vanner equalizer this winter.

We pulled out of our site at 8:3 AM. I-75 through southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee was very hilly but the highway was in excellent condition and it was a scenic and pleasurable drive. Traffic started to get heavy as we approached Knoxville, Tennessee where there was apparently a college football game being played today. Traffic remained heavy from there to our destination, which made the driving a little more work and a little less fun, but it was still OK.

The bus ran strong all day and I was able to climb the grade at Jellico, Tennessee in 4th gear without dropping below 50 MPH or getting the engine temperature above 200 degrees F (as best I could tell from the gauge) and the exhaust manifold pyrometers not exceeding 800 degrees F. That was a big improvement over two years ago when I recall climbing up the mountain in the right lane behind slow trucks in a lower gear and worrying about the engine temperature.

Even though I had the cruise control on for most of the drive I did well using downhill speed to go up the other side and getting on the accelerator early to get the RPMs and turbo boost up and keep them there. I typically saw 15 PSI boost at 2000 RPM but occasionally 16 or 17 PSI. We really need a 0-20 boost gauge for this engine but I could not find one and doubt that they exist. Besides, the new 0-30 gauge is working for me and I have other things that need to be fixed/replaced, such as the twin pyrometer gauge. The left needle used to stick at the bottom of the scale but now the right needle is doing that. Tapping on the face of the gauge usually frees it up, but not always. When the needles are both working, however, they are showing the same temperature within 50 degrees F, which is comforting. I used to think the bus (and me) liked to run at 62 MPH but I have come to the conclusion that it likes to run 65 to 68 MPH, and I am comfortable with that.

We stopped at the rest area about 41 miles north of the Georgia border where I replied to a text from Kristine and then called John Palmer. He answered this time, said he was glad to have us visit, and gave me the address. He said he will have customers there but there was plenty of room and we would not have a problem getting our bus in and out. (Note: We are also customers, albeit from a few years ago, but this is primarily a social visit and a place to stop for two nights.) Rather than take time to eat while sitting still we had some pretzel and peanut snacks as we finished our drive to our destination for the day.

We arrived at exit 296 in Georgia around 1:45 PM and pulled into the Pilot Travel Center just southeast of the exit with the fuel gauge sitting at 1/4. We picked this place to refuel because it is just on the other side of I-75 from our campground for tonight and I wanted to use as much of the fuel in the tank as I could without risking sucking dirt off the bottom or running out.

I figured we would take on 150 gallons of diesel fuel so I added 2 ounces of Racor Biocide, three 16 ounce bottles of Stanadyne Performance Formula diesel fuel treatment, and three 16 ounce bottles of Stanadyne Lubricity Formula. The PF additive treats 60 gallons of fuel per bottle and I add it to the tank before each fill up in proportion to the amount of fuel I think I will add. The directions for the LF additive say to “use it 4 to 6 times per year” but that is presumably based on an engine operating in a tractor-trailer or other commercial / industrial use. Still, I only added one bottle last time when I should have added three, so I added three this time. We ended up only adding 142 gallons but the extra additive won’t hurt anything.

I reset the trip odometer before we pulled out, which I forgot to do when I filled up at home. We used to record our mileage and fuel purchases to get an idea of our fuel efficiency in miles per gallon but have never really had an accurate figure for a couple of reasons. One was that the speedometer/odometer was not working correctly, or at all, and only got replaced in fall 2014. The other is that the Aqua-Hot and auxiliary power plant both burn fuel from the same tank as the main engine. Consequently, we can get an approximate idea of fuel consumption if we fill up at the beginning of a long day’s drive and then fill up again at the end before parking for the night, or if we know for sure that we are not going to use the Aqua-Hot or Genset prior to refueling. Since we will be boondocking from tomorrow afternoon until Tuesday morning we will definitely be running the Genset and probably using the Aqua-Hot.

Our next fill up will probably be on the drive from Williston to Arcadia in late December and the only reason for topping up then is to make sure we pull into Big Tree RV Resort in Arcadia with a nearly full tank to minimize condensation while the bus sits there until early March. This is one of the reasons I wanted to get all of the additives in the tank today. We will have full hookups at Big Tree and do not expect to have to run the Aqua-Hot for space heating. Even though we will have metered electric, we will use the electric heating element in the Aqua-Hot for domestic hot water except possibly for showering. If the resort has a bath/shower house we might use it if convenient.

From the Pilot station I drove to the KOA about 3/10ths of a mile on the other side of I-75 and pulled up to the office at 2:10 PM. The KOA is near Cartersville, Georgia. It is a nice enough place with easy access but the facilities are not as extensive (read that as kid/family magnet) as some KOAs. Linda got us registered and the woman in the office used a golf cart to lead us to our site. We got a very convenient 50A FHU pull through site so getting in was easy and getting out tomorrow morning should be equally easy.

We leveled the coach and went through our arrival routine, minus the water and sewer connections. It was 71 degrees F outside with low afternoon sun was just warm enough in the coach that Linda opened several windows and I put the screen in the door window. We then went for a walk around the campground. The place was almost full and seemed to have a lot of rigs that appeared to be set up for long-term stays. The woman in the office confirmed later that they were fully booked for this evening and that 2/3rds of the campground was in use by extended stay visitors, many of whom were doing work in the area for Georgia Power. That was certainly not the case when we were here two years ago on December 22nd, so that may have just been a matter of timing.

Back at the coach it was warm enough that we opened two of the ceiling vents and turned the fans on to exhaust air from the coach. I went to put on a pair of shorts and discovered that we had failed to pack any. I did bring my two pairs of convertible hiking slacks so I unzipped the lower portion of the legs on one pair and made them into shorts. Much more comfortable. I will be doing some shopping once we get settled.

I sent a slightly more detailed text message to Kristine and a daily update text message to Chuck which drew a reply and another text from me. Linda got our WiFiRanger connected to the KOA Wi-Fi and then logged-in to RVillage. She changed our location for last night to the Oh Kentucky Campground in Berea, KY and then changed it again for today to the Cartersville KOA. We were apparently the only RVillage members at either campground.

We were a little hungry so Linda walked to the office to see if they had any hotdog buns, as we left ours behind along with a loaf of raisin bread. They did not have hotdog buns so she cooked a couple of vegan hotdogs and served them on bread. We also forgot to unplug the Insta-Hot in the kitchen so she texted the kids and asked them to unplug it and remove the bread products when they were next at the house.

We will be boondocking Sunday and Monday nights so Linda availed herself of the showers at the campground. I worked for a while on this post and then went over to get a shower. Linda warned me that it took a while to get hot water so I let the hot water run for at least five minutes but it never got warm enough to shower comfortably. The men’s bath/shower room was also quite chilly so I took a really quick shower, dried off, and got dressed. The office had free coffee available so I had some to warm up and mentioned the lack of usable hot water to the woman at the desk. She seemed surprised but then asked if I let it run a long time, so they know there is an issue. She said she would mention it to the manager.

Around 6 PM Linda heated up a couple of Amy’s brand Vegetable Korma meals. As with all Amy’s products they were vegan and tasty, as well as quick and easy, so the quality to efficiency ratio was fairly high.

The antennapoint.com website indicated that we should be able to pick up a few OTA TV stations. We managed to tune in the ION and PBS affiliates whose towers were NNE of our location and watched a few shows. Linda read for a while and I checked e-mail and played games on my iPad, which is what I do to relax and/or fill time when

I don’t feel like doing anything else. Linda was going to make an Apple crisp but did not have enough cinnamon so she added that to her grocery list and cut up an apple to eat. Around 8 PM she popped the last of the popcorn and added that to her grocery list too.

Around 9:30 PM I closed the ceiling vents in the bedroom and bathroom and took the screen out of the entry door window and closed it. Linda has had a cough for a few days and has been a bit congested so she went to bed at 10 PM. I called Butch at 10:15 PM (8:15 MST) but he did not answer. He does not have a voice mailbox and does not respond to text messages on his phone, so I went to bed.

2015/11/15 (N) Tiling the Cockpit, #2

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Having had a larger than normal meal later than usual last night, and gotten to bed later than usual, we did not get up this morning until a little after 8 AM. I made coffee but we were not hungry. By the time we finished our coffee it was approaching 10 AM but once we got to work in the bus we were on task until 7:30 PM with only a short lunch break at 1:15 PM.

Bruce dry fits floor tiles on the navigator seat platform. (Photo by Linda.)

We cut and dry fit the tiles for the platform floor and walls. We had to take time out to use the oscillating saw to undercut the bottom edge of the face board on the passenger side front vertical wiring chase. With all the tile cut and fitted we determined the order in which we would install them. We started with the platform floor and the first six tiles of the landing. I also had to fashion some shims to make sure the tile in the driver-side rear corner of the platform would be installed in exactly the right location. This would be the first tile installed and if it was even slightly misaligned it would throw all of the other tiles off.

Bruce spreads Armstrong vinyl adhesive on the navigator platform. (Photo by Linda.)

I marked the edges of all the tiles on the underlayment and then we pulled them up in the reverse order of installation. Linda prepared some soapy water to use for cleanup of the tools and tiles. I spread the Armstrong vinyl adhesive and Linda cleaned the trowels when I was done. We waited for it to cure to the point where we could set the tiles. Even with two heaters going in the front of the bus the adhesive took about 50 minutes to cure to where it would not transfer when touched. Once it reached that point we had roughly an hour to set the tiles but it only took about 20 minutes to install them. I used a large rubber mallet to help set them, pulled the spacers, wiped the edges with a wet paper towel, and then walked on them in lieu of using a 100 pound floor roller which would have been awkward at best to use on such a small area and not worth the time and expense to rent from The Home Depot in Howell.

Bruce installs intricately cut floor tiles in the cramped front of the driver’s area. (Photo by Linda.)

As soon as the first group of tiles was installed we pulled up the remainder of the floor tiles from the landing and driver area. Linda got some paper grocery bags and painter’s tape and masked off the platform floor along the back and side wall. I spread adhesive on all of those areas and then Linda once again cleaned the tools. Approximately 50 minutes from when I started spreading adhesive l started setting the tiles and about 20 minutes after that they were all installed. Once again I used a large rubber mallet to help set them, pulled the spacers, and wiped the edges with a wet paper towel. I walked on the floor tiles but had no way to further set the wall tiles.

We were done by 7:30 PM. Linda cleaned up the tools and water bucket while I closed up the bus. She started fixing diner and I got out of my work clothes and put on my robe. Dinner was a nice salad and an Amy’s Roasted Vegetable Pizza; vegan, of course. We finished the Organic Natural White wine from Frey, but we did not necessarily enjoy it.

Following dinner we relaxed in the living room for a while and I responded to a series of text messages from Kristine Gullen. I missed the SLAARC information net at 8 PM because it just slipped my mind. We were in bed by 10 PM and I watched Part 1 of the 2-part PBS American Experience program on Walt Disney while I finished this post.

2015/09/14 (M) Final Prep (for now)

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We were up at 8 AM and had breakfast but I did not take the time to make coffee. I gathered up the laundry and started a load. I then headed to Lowe’s to buy an outlet strip that I could easily hardwire. I looked at angle iron to support the upper back edge of the interpedestal desk cover at the wall but did not buy any. The iron has holes and slots manufactured into it that I thought might allow me to adjust its location vertically without having to move the location of the screws. Alas, the slotted openings were horizontal rather than vertical.

Linda was cooking a batch of granola when I got home and made a pot of coffee. I decided to tend to some travel preparation items before getting back to work on the remodeling project. I wanted to check/adjust the tire pressures while it was still cool. The tires were all down about 1.5 PSI, which was very good given how long it has been sitting. I used the new 6-gallon air-compressor to bring them up to the pressures I like to run and it worked OK. I will have to pause a little more often while it re-pressurizes but it is less than half the size of the 15-gallon DeWalt and will travel with much more easily.

My next task was to unload the front bay which I did while Linda continued to work on our food for the week. We find it much easier to deal with food at rallies if she “cooks ahead” and “reheats to serve.” I set everything in the driveway in front of the bus and tried to sort it into two groups; things were staying home for this trip and things that were going with us.

I then opened the drain valve on the fresh water tank, which goes through the floor of the water bay, and let the water run onto a container lid so it wouldn’t dig a hole in the gravel driveway. I was getting ready to deploy the fresh water hose(s) when I noticed that they were in need of some serious cleaning. Linda agreed to take care of that and cleaned their storage tub too. Ditto for the waste water (sewage) hoses and their storage tub. Her taking on this task allowed me to return to working on the installation of the desk.

I had a 12″ long piece of 1/8″ aluminum angle and decided to use it to support the upper back edge of the interpedestal shelf/cover. I drilled and countersunk five holes in one of the flanges. Linda finished cleaning the hoses and then got our wireless thermometer from the house. It has a base thermometer and two wireless remotes so she put one remote in the freezer and the other one in the fresh food compartment. We wanted to monitor the temperature and dial it in to where we needed it before loading the refrigerator with food.

The stacked mending plates used to create a tongue-&-groove alignment system between the center cover and both the left and right desk pedestals/bases.

I removed the interpedestal cover and set the left pedestal aside so I could complete the AC wiring connections. I mounted the outlet strip to the wall centered between the two pedestals and about two inches below the level of the underside of the plywood that will support the Corian top. The outlet strip had a 15 foot cord. I determined how much of that length I needed to get through the right pedestal and forward along the wiring chase to where the other wires were located. I cut off the extra length, routed the power cord into the right pedestal at the left upper rear corner, down the inside left rear corner, and out the left end of the upper base. From there it ran forward to the other wires where I connected them. I turned on the circuit breaker and then turned on the outlet strip. The switch lit up, indicating the presence of 120V AC. I used my Etcon tester to check the duplex outlet by the passenger seat. It also had power so the wiring was good.

I set the interpedestal shelf/cover back in place, aligned with the right base, and then aligned the left base to it. I checked the distance from each end of the base to the HVAC duct and adjusted it to be the same. We then adjusted the position of the left pedestal until we were satisfied with the alignment with the interpedestal cover. We checked the alignment of the front top edges of the pedestals with a 6′ metal ruler. Everything looked OK so I secured the pedestal to the base using two screws that will be hidden by the laser printer in normal use.

I needed to screw the pedestal to the wall in the two upper corners to minimize the visibility of those screws. It was not flush to the wall at those points so I used a shim in the upper right. We will have to cover the vertical gap at the left rear with molding.

Bruce finds the center of a drawer front by finding the point where the diagonals of the face intersect. The handle mounting holes were located horizontally 1-1/2” to either side of this center point.

We put the removable plates back in the bottom of each pedestal. I drilled the holes for the pulls in the four desk drawers, installed the pulls, and put the drawers back in the desk. To find the correct location for the holes Linda suggested that we put a piece of painter’s tape in the center of the face and then draw a small segment of the two diagonals to find their intersection. For the two small drawers that was all we needed as they got single knob style pulls. For the two larger drawers we needed to locate the holes 1-1/2″ to either side of the center on a line through the center parallel to the top and bottom edges. I measured carefully and I think we did a pretty good job.

Sometime during the morning I texted Jarel the dimensions for a 3/4″ thick piece of walnut 1-7/8″ high by 34″ long to use as a face for the edges of the three layers of plywood under the refrigerator. He texted back and said “no problem” which lead to an exchange of a dozen e-mails clarifying just exactly what I wanted. I did not mind, better that than assumptions that result in wasted time making parts that don’t fit. Jarel is an experienced cabinet maker and is meticulous in his work. He knows all the questions to ask about things I did not specify and does so before cutting any wood.

Our last construction task before departure tomorrow was rehanging the bathroom door. I measured the distance from the bottom hinge to the bottom edge of the door and compared it to the distance from the hinge in the door frame to the floor. It looked like it should fit without rubbing so we hung the door. (The old ceramic tile rubbed as the door was swung to its fully open position, but the thickness of the underlayment and vinyl tile is less than the ceramic and thinset, at least in that area.)

Linda was still trying to prepare our food for the rally as there will be very little of the included food that we can eat. She made a grocery run while I returned to emptying out the front bay of the bus. I plan to leave most of the stuff that was stored in that bay at home so Josh has access to the ceiling to see if we can through-bolt mount the two captain’s chairs in the living room. I might also store all of the GLCC stuff down there as Linda will be coming down on Wednesday in the car with the cats and we want to minimize the amount of other stuff in the car.

I thought about sanitizing the fresh water system by using the 12V DC water pump and the winterizing valves/tubes to draw a dilute chlorine solution from a bucket and pump it through the fresh water pipes. I decided against it based on available time and higher priority items that needed to be done. I connected the clean fresh water hoses to the coach and started filling the tank. I checked that the fuel polishing pump was off and checked the air springs and latch on the generator. I made a mental note that the aft air springs (front of the Yanmar diesel engine) needed air and made sure the slide tray was latched in place. I was going to start the generator and let it power the air conditioners but decided to forego for now that as well.

We had unlatched and removed the towbar from the bus receiver earlier in the summer. I used one of our hand trucks to move it over by the car. I put the passenger side rear seat down and loaded the towbar in behind it along with the bag that holds all of the other pieces. That left plenty of room for the two cat carriers, litter tray, and any miscellaneous things she may bring along on Wednesday.

We put the mattress back onboard and Linda made the bed, but forgot the electric heating pad. Linda did some cleaning and then we loaded clothing and food. Computers, cameras, and other technology will go on first thing tomorrow morning. We then got the various GLCC items out of the garage and staged them by the passenger side of the bus. I loaded our personal items onto the driver’s side half of the slide tray and loaded the GLCC stuff onto passenger side half.

Our goal was to be done by 5 PM but it was 6 PM when I finally had the pressure washer ready to use. It took me a little over an hour to spray the car and the coach and I wrapped up for the day at 7:30 PM. We had seitan stroganoff for dinner with the 2013 Egri Merlot and had watermelon for dessert. It was another long day but we got a lot accomplished and most it did not require me to work on my hands and knees, for which I was grateful.

2015/08/24 (M) Skimcoating

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For a change of pace we had granola with vegan yogurt for breakfast. I made seven cups of the Cafe Europe / Columbian decaf blend but Linda only had one mug as she was meeting Diane at Kensington Metropark at 9 AM to walk. After she left I gathered up the laundry, sorted it, and started the first load. I then turned my attention to the bus.

My first task was to cut one of the 8″x8″ sheets of #80 sandpaper in half, put it on the orbital pad sander, and go over all of the Universal Patch and Skimcoat (UPS) that I applied yesterday. The 80 grit worked well and I only needed the one half sheet. I swept the floor clean of loose debris and then assembled my tools and materials to patch a few gouges I missed yesterday and then skimcoat the entire portion of the floor that used to have ceramic tile on it. I mixed 24 ounces (by volume) with 12 ounces of water (by volume), half as much UPS as I did yesterday. I tried to work more quickly and got most of it applied. I cleaned up my tools and let them dry while the compound cured. That also gave me an opportunity to move laundry from the washer to the dryer and start another load in the washing machine.

I had a call from Chuck so I took a break to chat with him. He and Barbara spent the weekend racing at the old Air Force base in Oscoda, Michigan. Their bus and race car both ran well and he turned in some very good times. He had installed a new turbo boost gauge in the bus and based on my experience had selected a 0 to 15, PSI VDO unit. Apparently 15 PSI is not high enough for his engine. I have seen the boost on my gauge, which is a 0 to 30 PSI model, go as high as 17, but not often. For most of our trip to Arizona and back this past winter it did not go over 15 PSI.

The only issue they have with their coach at the moment is their old Amana residential refrigerator. The freezer is apparently not keeping things as cold as it should and the ice maker is not working. They use a lot of ice and generally have the freezer stocked, so those are problems. They bought a bag of ice for the weekend but it appeared to get warm enough to develop surface moisture and then refroze into large chunks, inconvenient at best. I think they have decided to replace it and want to do so before they leave for the winter and while they still have the shop and the forklift.

Chuck is also going to contact the glass installer and see if he would be willing to install bus windshields. Both of his lower windshields need to be replaced as do both of ours. We have five replacements at his shop, two for him and three for me. I also have new gaskets but he needs to get two sets. We discussed late September as the best time for me and he will see if the windshield guy will do all four of them on the same day.

I mixed the remaining USP, about 12 ounces (by volume) with 6 ounces of water (by volume) and finished the skimcoating of the bus floor. I used the last little bit of compound to patch some screw holes and small gouges in the living room floor where carpet had been installed. There may be a few more but instead of opening another bag of UPS I will probably return it and buy a quart of the premixed compound. I then cleaned up my tools again and left them in the sun to dry.

Linda got home about this time. It was just after noon, so we had a light lunch of vegan deli slices with lettuce, onion, and Daiya non-dairy cheese, on thin buns. A pluot provided a nice, sweet finish to lunch.

We measured for wallpaper the other day so I took the notes and created an Excel spreadsheet to figure out how many rolls of wallpaper to order. While I did that Linda worked on cleaning and reconditioning drawer fronts with Touch of Oranges and Touch of Beeswax. After examining the wallpaper in the bathroom (of the bus) I think we need to replace it too. We took a few minutes to get those measurements and I added them to the spreadsheet.

The wallpaper we have selected is the Lamar (#699-3377R) from the Just Textures collection of Sellars and Josephson. It is an off-white color with a small texture pattern designed for reverse hang, random match installation. It is only sold in 2-roll bolts 27″ wide and 4.5 yards long. We will need more than six rolls to replace all of the wallpaper so we will have to order eight rolls even though we may defer doing part of the hallway and the bathroom for a while. Fortunately it is not too expensive (as wallpapers go) and is scrubable, which was one of our requirements for use in the bus. Linda will return the sample books to Delux Drapery and Shade Company in Ann Arbor on Wednesday morning and place the order.

Linda reheated the leftover fajita veggies from last night and fixed some white rice to go with them. We had fresh strawberries and a little Coconut Bliss non-dairy ice cream for dessert. Coconut Bliss ice creams are not too coconuty, and are appropriately named. They are as good as I remember Hagan-Daas being.

I took a little time to add lines to my floor tile layout drawing showing the location of the underlayment sheets. It looks like I may need at least eight sheets. I have four sheets in the garage and will install those before buying more. I spent the rest of the evening working on the article for Bus Conversion Magazine about Larry and Carol Hall’s GM4106 bus conversion and finished it around 10 PM. I spent another 1.5 hours catching up on e-mail and checking in on the status of Technomadia’s bus renovation project at MasterTech in Elkhart, Indiana. The weather has turned cool and should be perfect for working on the bus tomorrow. We need to have long, productive days, so I had a snack and got to bed at midnight, played a few games, and went to sleep.

2015/08/22 (S) Clean and Level

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We arrived at the SLAARC breakfast just before 8 AM. We took the last two seats at the end of the long row of tables, but had to add another one as six more people came in after us. We had a lively chat that lasted until almost 9:30. After breakfast we stopped at the Tractor Supply Company store in New Hudson to get a couple more deer blocks and then headed for home.

We took a few minutes to put away tools and straighten up the garage enough that we could set up a work surface for Linda to use for cleaning the walnut drawer fronts for all of the bus drawers. We set up the two sawhorses we got at Lowe’s yesterday, set two 8-foot 2x4s in the provided grooves, and set a 4’x8′ piece of 2″ rigid foam insulation across them to use as the work surface. I found an old package of 4/0 steel wool and Linda found some old terry cloth towels.

Foam insulation work surface in garage with walnut drawer fronts laid out for cleaning with Touch of Oranges.

Linda removed the drawer fronts from seven of the drawer boxes and tagged them so they could be reunited later as each front is uniquely paired with its box. She then removed the handles from the drawer fronts and set them aside as they will be replaced with new ones once the cleaning is done. She started with the back sides of the drawer fronts. Following the directions she sprayed them liberally with Touch of Oranges wood cleaner, let them sit for 10 minutes, sprayed them again lightly, and rubbed them with the 4/0 steel wool. She then wiped them off with a terry cloth towel and applied Touch of Beeswax using 4/0 steel wool, always working with the grain, of course. The wax will have at least 24 hours to soak in before being wiped off. Once that is done she will flip them over and repeat the process on the front side.

While Linda was doing all of that I hauled the 15 gallon DeWalt portable air compressor out by the bus, plugged it in, and connected the air hose. I used the 4″ circular pneumatic sander on a few remaining high spots and decided I was done with it. I had found some old packs of 80 grit half sheets and tried using them on my orbital sander but the grit disappeared very quickly and the sheets snagged and tore on splinters in the plywood. I spent more time changing sheets than I did sanding with them so I abandoned this approach after the fifth sheet. I did, however, find a half dozen splintered areas and prepared those by making stop cuts with a utility knife and then peeling the splinter free with a putty knife, creating voids that will be filled with leveling compound.

I was tired of sanding and was clearly not going to get the floor back down to bare wood. I decided that the floor was as sanded and smooth as it was going to get and it was time to move to the next process; patching and leveling. Before I could do that, however, I needed to clean the coach. I vacuumed the floor three times and vacuumed all of the woodwork and wallpaper. As I worked from the bedroom forward Linda followed behind with a microfiber cloth wiping down all of the woodwork.

I assembled the tools I needed to apply the Universal Patch and Skimcoat; a 3″ putty knife, a 5″ putty knife, a combination smooth and toothed rectangular trowel, a mixing bucket, and a 2 foot long wooden stir stick and a mixing paddle designed to go in a drill. Each bag of UPS weighs 7 pounds and gets mixed with 1.75 quarts of water, which works out to 1 part water to 2 parts UPS.

The directions on the bag indicated that a full bag of UPS, properly mixed, would cover 20 to 25 square feet 1/8″ thick. That’s only a 5’x5′ area, but I only had a few gouges that were 1/8″ deep, so an entire bag was going to cover a lot more than 25 square feet when applied as a skim coat. Not having worked with this material before I had no idea how much working time I would have so I decided to mix half a bag. The recommended mixing method using a paddle in an electric drill turned out to be a bad idea so used the 2-foot long wooden stir stick to mix the compound.

TEC Universal Patch and Skimcoat applied to the floor in that hallway.

I started in the bathroom patching small depressions and then working out from the baseboards. By the time I got out into the hallway I had not even used half the compound and it was starting to set up. I hurried to use as much of it as I could, and tried adding a little extra water to extend its workability, but was only able to use about 60% of it before it was too stiff to spread and trowel off smoothly. I could have waited 1 hour and then mixed and applied more compound but I did not want to risk disturbing what I had already done and it has to set for 24 hours before I can sand it, which I will have to do.

Cleanup required warm soapy water for the tools. I then poured it into the 5 gallon compound bucket, topped it up with water, stirred it to dissolve the compound as much as possible, and let it sit.

For dinner Linda made Farro with mushrooms, onions garlic, glazed snow peas, and grated carrots. She needed some dry white wine for the Farro dish and opened a bottle of Pinot Grigio, so we had a glass with the meal. As rule if a wine is used in a dish it is also a good choice to drink with that meal.

After dinner I went to Lowe’s and got some more 4/0 steel wool and some 80 grit sandpaper sheets. I stopped at O’Reilly’s for a battery disconnect switch for the lawn tractor but they did not have one. I tried the Howell Tractor Supply Company but they did not have one either. I drove to the Brighton Shell station, topped off the fuel in the Element, and went home. We turned in at 9 PM and watched a 007 movie before going to sleep.

2015/08/20 (R) On The Level

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We awoke around 7 AM and noticed that it had rained overnight. We had Linda’s homemade granola with fresh blueberries for breakfast, followed by a pot of coffee brewed from the Cafe Europe / Columbian Decaf blend I got from Teeko’s on Tuesday. As we do most mornings we enjoyed our coffee while using our iPads to check in on the world (Linda) and write about our day yesterday (me).

While Linda went for a walk I checked e-mail and responded to several from Gary Hatt at Bus Conversion Magazine. I then unloaded all of the boards, slides, battery terminal covers, and the pneumatic disc sander and discs from the car. I set up our 15 gallon portable air compressor by the entrance door of the bus, got the long air hose out of its storage bay, and connected the air sander.

When Linda got back from her walk we unloaded the pull-out pantry from the car and stored it on top of some of the bookcases in the library. We had a light lunch after which Linda settled in to work at her desk and I busied myself with sanding the floor in the bus with the air sander.

Floor prep tools: 4” belt sander, hammer and chisel, 4” rotary pneumatic body sander.

I was eager (anxious) to get the initial sanding done so I could apply the floor leveling compound. Like drywall compound it will be a multi-day process. I needed to fill any deep gouges and voids, let the compound dry, and then lightly sand it with an orbital pad sander and finer grit sandpaper to make sure it is smooth. I then needed to fill the shallow grooves that exist between the ridges of thinset and mastic that I could not sand off completely. Once that dried I would again sand it off lightly and then apply a final, very thin, skim coat to the entire area, feathering it into the areas where tile was never installed. Finally I would go over the entire area gently with the pad sander one last time to make sure the surface is as smooth and flat as possible before installing the 1/4″ underlayment. The tile will be installed directly on the underlayment.

I considered using self-leveling instead of troweled-on floor leveling compounded but decided against it. Self-leveling is thin, like water, and flows. As such it seeks its on level and forms a smooth flat surface that is “level” as determined by gravity. Although it offers the possibility of a single step process with no sanding, it also offers the potential to go wrong and not be repairable. The bus subfloor would have to be dead level side-to-side and front-to-rear. There would also have to be a border to contain the liquid and there could not be any holes or cracks that it could leak through. In particular it seemed I’ll-suited for feathering into the adjacent areas of the subfloor that were never tiled. And so I decided to fill in and “level” the floor the slower and more labor intensive, but more controlled, way.

For dinner we had the other half of the gluten free pizza Linda made on Tuesday. We had peaches, strawberries, bananas, and an orange melon that were all ripe so she made a fruit salad. We finished the bottle of Cupcake Black Forest Decadent Red Wine.

We decided to turn in early and watch a little TV. Part 2 of The Mystery of Matter: The Search for the Elements was on PBS at 8 PM. We saw Part 3 last night and did not realize until 7:45 PM that Part 1 was on this evening at 7 PM, so we still have not seen it.

2015/08/15 (S) Steve and Karen

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As we were backing out of the driveway to go to our weekly ham radio breakfast we noticed a large mailbox sitting on the ground next to ours. It was still attached to the upper half of its wood support structure. The number was 593, which is not an address that occurs on our street. We left it there and went to breakfast.

We had a mid-sized group of 15 people at our SLAARC breakfast this morning. On the drive into breakfast we lost power to our GPS every time I transmitted on the 2m ham band. The GPS and cellular booster worked fine all day yesterday with the new 12VDC extension splitter, but I did not use the mobile ham radio.

After breakfast we went directly to Chuck’s shop in Novi to see if we could retrieve the old refrigerator using our car. A measuring tape quickly revealed that the fridge would not fit without removing the seats. Even then it would be too long to close the rear gate and hatch on the Element. At breakfast Harvey (AC8NO) offered the use of his van and labor to help move the fridge and I will probably take him up on it.

On the drive home I chatted with John (NU8M) on the South Lyon 2m repeater and we were joined by Mike (W8XH). After John signed and dropped off Linda tried different combinations of power connections while I talked with Mike. Based on that test the splitter appears to be the problem but we could not determine if it was a voltage drop issue or some form of RFI.

I stopped on the way home to fill the gas tank in my car. When we got home I put the mailbox in the back of my car and we drove to the end of the street but it clearly did not come from one of our neighbor’s yards. When we got back to the house we also noticed that there was a footprint on the side of our mailbox. Closer inspection revealed that the post was slightly loose in the ground and the box was leaning (bent) slightly to one side. Clearly someone had tried to kick it over (and failed) and there was a very high probability that it was the same person(s) who probably broke the other mailbox and left it on the ground next to ours. We discussed whether we should report it to the Livingston County Sheriff Department but did not take the time right then to do so.

Linda needed to make a grocery store run and then prep the food for dinner and pick up the house. With company coming later I did not want to get all sweaty working in the bus and garage so I worked in my office editing and uploading blog posts. I quit around 3:30 and was writing blog posts when Steve and Karen Limkemann arrived at 4 PM.

We always have a nice visit with Steve and Karen and they are good sports about eating the vegan food that Linda prepares. Linda made a sweet and sour collard greens cole slaw and vegan potato salad ahead of time. She cooked corn-on-the-cob on the stovetop and heated vegan beer brats on the grill along with onions and green peppers. Steve and Karen brought a Malbec wine which we enjoyed before, during and after the meal. Dessert was fresh strawberries with cashew milk snickerdoodle ice cream. Really, what’s not to like?

Steve and Karen have rented a house trailer in a trailer park near Venice, Florida for the last few winters. I think they rented it for January, February, and March and split the time with another couple, but I may not have my facts completely straight. The owners of the trailer are from England and decided after this last winter that they want to start using it during the winter so Steve and Karen lost the use of it. They really liked the park and its location so they bought a trailer that was for sale and already set up. We visited them two winters ago, but we were several hours north of them. This coming winter we will be much closer to them while we are in Arcadia during January and February and plan to see them more often. Venice is a very upscale place and there is an excellent vegan restaurant within easy walking distance (a mile) from their trailer park.

We talked about trying to catch the tail end of the Perseids Meteor Shower but the peak was earlier in the week, they would not be visible at our location until midnight, and then only low in the northeast sky, which is not an ideal viewing direction from our yard. Steve and Karen had a 45 minute drive to get home and left around 10:30 PM. By that point it had been a long but very satisfying day for us and we were straight away to bed once they were safely on their way.

2015/07/19 (N) Another Buddy Visit

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Linda was up at 6:30 AM to get showered before Madeline woke up at 7 AM. Once Madeline was up they got busy right away making vegan blueberry pancakes. I was up at 7:20 AM, got a quick shower, and was dressed and seated at the table just in time for breakfast. The pancakes cooked especially well this morning although I would like to try them sometime without the blueberries cooked in. After we were done eating I made coffee while Linda and Madeline prepared vegan sloppy Joe’s in the crock pot for lunch.

Mara has been getting up when she feels like it and eating breakfast by herself. By 9 AM she was outside emptying the passenger side storage bays on her motorhome. She spent the rest of the morning going through the stuff she had removed, deciding what to keep, organizing it, and putting it back. I gathered up our laundry, sorted it, and started a load.

Aunt Meghan (our daughter) and Uncle Chris (her husband) arrived at 10 AM and I brewed another pot of coffee. This was the second buddy visit of Madeline’s stay (the first was Cousin Katie on Friday). Meghan provided a lot of child care during Madeline’s first 18 months and Madeline adores her “buddy.” She took Meghan on a tour of the house showing her where various things, like snacks and kitty cats, were to be found. It was a sure sign that Madeline is finally feeling very comfortable at our house.

Having other adults around gave Linda a break and some time to finish preparing lunch, although once Madeline realized Grandma Linda was at work in the kitchen she had to help. I went out around 11:45 AM to fetch Mara. We all sat down at noon and enjoyed a simple but delicious meal of vegan sloppy Joe’s (based on textured vegetable protein aka TVP), corn on the cob, raw baby carrots, and black grapes.

Madeline had very busy days yesterday and the day before and got up a little tired this morning so by 1 PM she was more than ready for her nap. Meghan and Chris had things to do and took their leave. Mara went back to work on her rig and Linda laid down for a nap. I tended to the laundry and then went out to work on our bus and Mara’s motorhome.

I used the Speedout set to try and remove the screw with the stripped head from the stop block on the passenger side fixed glass frame. I was not successful with this tool so I switched gears and worked on Mara’s cell phone booster system. I climbed on the roof and she handed me the 12″ x 18″ thin galvanized sheet steel plate. I took it to the front of the roof, set it down on the fore-aft centerline, and positioned the 4″ magnetic mount antenna in the center. I dropped the coax over the edge by the driver’s side window and climbed back down from the roof.

Mara opened the sliding side window and screen by the driver’s seat and I passed the coax in to her. Inside the rig we positioned the amplifier on the driver’s seat and started experimenting with various positions for the inside antenna. We found one that worked well and left it for her to try. I checked the laundry and then laid down for a nap.

I skipped dinner as I had a SLAARC meeting at 6:30 and had to leave before 6 PM which is when Madeline was having her evening meal. Our ham radio club meetings start with social time from 6:30 to 7:00 PM. The meeting was called to order at 7 PM by president Harvey (AC8NO) and I agreed to act as recording secretary. Linda was not able to attend because she was taking care of Madeline so I gave the treasurer’s report in her absence. The meeting adjourned at 7:10 PM. We reconfigured the room for the program which was a presentation and debrief of our recent field day activity. Larry (K8UT) reported on the N1MM Logger Plus networked computer logging software. Steve (N8AR) reported on the radios and antennas and conducted the debriefing.

I got back home before 9 PM. Madeline was asleep and the ladies were each enjoying a glass of Pinot Grigio on the back deck. I poured one for myself and joined them. The mosquitoes eventually appeared and we retreated indoors. I reheated the bowtie pasta from the other night and finished it for dinner. We said “good night” at 10 PM after which I checked e-mail and websites and then headed to bed. I wrote for a while before turning out the lights.

2015/07/15 (W) Prime Wednesday

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It was brisk when we got up this morning, with the temperature in the upper 40’s (F), light breezes, lower humidity, and clear, blue skies. When the weather in Michigan is at its best it is near perfect.

After our usual coffee and granola we spent a little time browsing Amazon.com looking at their “Prime Wednesday” sale. Neither of us are compulsive shoppers or impulse buyers and scrolling through thousands of items on a slow Internet connection looking for something we can’t live without at a price we can’t pass up is not our idea of fun. I have things I need to order, like the multiple monitor mounting system for the ham shack, but it quickly became obvious that I was not going to find those items for sale as part of Amazon’s special July 15 Prime Sale.

Mara was up and took her garbage to our trash to can and returned to her rig. Linda then took our garbage out and moved the can to the street. By 10:30 AM Mara had not yet emerged from her rig, so I went to my basement office and resumed work on the custom desk design for our bus. I still need to design the pull-out pantry but I finally ordered the Fulterer top/bottom slide mount from Rockler and had it shipped directly to Jarel in Logansport, Indiana. It is a serious piece of hardware that will support 450 pounds, so it should be more than adequate for the task.

Mara eventually emerged from her rig and the ladies left for 12 Oaks Mall and Mara’s first ever appointment with Renee in the J. C. Penney’s Salon. They were gone quite a while, tacking on several stops at pet and food stores before returning home.

I received a second quote for a wall-mounted monitor mounting system from AFC Industries. It included itemized pricing and an offer of a 15% discount but was still way too expensive. Though more expensive than a desk-mounted pole system I decided I to order the ZioTek wall-mounted monitor mounting system from CyberGuys. Being wall-mounted it will get my monitors completely off the desks, leaving room for ham radio equipment to slide underneath and all the way to the back edge of the desk (and beyond). It will also isolate the monitors from the desk so they won’t move if the desks are bumped. Another bonus is that I can move the desks to get to the cables at the back of the radios without having to move the monitors.

The monitor mounting system is a significant purchase so I wanted to make sure the components would work the way I need them to. I measured the three monitors that will initially be mounted using the system and then made a scale drawing to see how they would fit. I added all of the items to the shopping cart and was getting ready to complete the purchase when I noticed that a 5% discount was available if I joined their e-mail club. I signed up, received an e-mail, and confirmed my intention to join but the 5% discount did not show up in my shopping cart. I called the 800 number and was told it would take 24 hours for the discount to be available so I cleared all of the items out of the cart and will re-enter them tomorrow.

I finally settled in to my design work but took several breaks to talk to friends on the Novi and South Lyon repeaters. The Morgan Manufacturing VHF/UHF lightning arrestor was once again degrading my signal to an unusable level/quality so I once again disconnected the antenna and radio coax and joined them together with an N-female to N-female barrel adapter. Once I did that I was able to transmit and receive to/from both repeaters full-quieting.

I exchanged a couple of e-mail updates with Jarel Beatty, the cabinet maker in Logansport, and finally quit working around 5 PM. I came upstairs and found that the weBoost cellular booster systems had arrived from Amazon so I unpacked the shipping box and opened them. I had not realized when we ordered them that they were designed for use in a car with an inside antenna that requires the phone or other cellular device to be 18 – 36 inches away. That is not very far and it is a fairly small range. As the name implies, however, it is designed for use while in motion which is what both we and Mara need/want. I decided to temporarily install one of them in Linda’s car to test it.

Sitting in the driveway in a relatively bad location my phone was in 3G mode with a weak, but usable, signal that hovered around -115 to -118 dBm. With the booster turned on my phone switched to 4G-LTE and the signal strength improved to anywhere between -103 to -94 dBm. (The less negative the signal strength in dBm the stronger the signal.) That may not appear impressive on the surface, and it was certainly not the 50 dBm gain that is claimed for this device, but it was actually a significant improvement.

“dB” is the abbreviation for “decibels” which is a logarithmic scale. Logarithmic scales are useful for representing quantities that vary over a large range, like cellular signal strengths. A change of 3 dB represents a factor of two, i.e., a doubling or halving of the quantity. Thus a change from -118 dBm to -115 dBm (decibels to a millivolt) represents a doubling of the received power. It is still a weak signal, but it is twice as strong. Going from -118 to -103 is a change of +15 dBm and is five doublings (-118 to -115 to -112 to -109 to -106 to -103) which is an increase of 2x2x2x2x2 = 32 times. Continuing from -103 to -94 is another +9 dB change representing three more doublings (-103 to -100 to -97 to -94) for a total gain of 32x2x2x2 = 32×8 = 256 times. Starting from a signal in the -118 to -127 dBm range that is potentially the difference between useable and not useable. (BTW: a change of 10 dB is a factor of 10, so going from -115 dBm to -105 dBm and then to -95 dBm represents an increase of 100 times.)

We had decided at dinner last night that we wanted to go to The Blue Nile restaurant while Mara was here. The best time to go turned out to be this evening, so Linda made an online reservation for 7:30 PM at the Ann Arbor location (there is also one in Ferndale). We tested the weBoost Drive 4G-X cellular booster on the drive to/from Ann Arbor and it definitely made a difference in the signal strength we saw on our phones.

It wasn’t until we got part way down Main Street that we realized that today was the opening day of the Ann Arbor Art Fair. The last place I wanted to be driving, parking, or walking was at the Ann Arbor Art Fair, not because I dislike art (we love art), and not because I dislike art fairs, but because I dislike congested traffic and crowds, which the AAAF has in abundance. Surprisingly, we were able to park in one of the parking structures a couple of blocks from the restaurant. After fighting our way through the pedestrian traffic I was even more surprised to find the restaurant essentially empty. The Blue Nile is slightly outside the portion of Main Street where the AAAF takes place and streets to either side that are closed off to vehicles during the AAAF. All of the restaurants and the beer/burger joints in and around the AAAF venue were doing a brisk business, especially if they had outside seating (it was a very pleasant evening), but the restaurant was open and the host was very gracious.

The Blue Nile serves Ethiopian cuisine. Some of the tables are upside down rope baskets with four chairs and two side tables. We always ask to be seated at one of these because we always order the Vegetarian Feast which is, in fact, vegan. The Feast comes on a large round tray covered with a layer of Ethiopian sponge bread (made from teff flour) with small piles of the seven different vegetable-based dishes on the menu surrounding a pile of (optional) salad in the center. Beverages and platters of rolled up sponge bread are placed on the two side tables (we had water and Ethiopian spiced tea). The meal is eaten by tearing off suitable sized pieces of sponge bread and picking up the eight different selections from the tray. Before the food was brought to the table we were given hot, moist towels to wash our hands. Nice touch.

The food was amazing and the experience somewhat more communal than sitting at a standard American table and eating with utensils. The waitstaff was gracious and attentive and it was a wonderful experience for all three of us. Mara asked one of the waitstaff to take a picture of the three of us, which they gladly did. She then uploaded it to her Facebook page along with a brief description of her visit and meal. One the drive home she already had 12 “likes.” This is the side of Facebook, and other social media, that is fun.

It was getting dark by the time we got back to the house but we took the time to unload Mara’s kayak from its special mount on the rear of her motorhome that is installed in the tow receiver. The kayak mounts diagonally from the lower driver side up past the roof on the passenger side and the tip is about 13′ 2″ above the ground. She was leaving at 6:30 AM the next morning to drive to Cummins Bridgeway to have her main engine and genset serviced and would be traveling south on Hacker Road to Grand River Avenue. The last time we did this we clipped a branch in the southbound lane on Hacker just north of Bendix Drive not far from Grand River Avenue. I was concerned that she would catch the same branch and damage her kayak which is why we took it off the rig.

Once the kayak was off the back of her rig and sitting in our yard we said a quick “good night” and all trundled off to bed as 6 AM would come all too soon. I wrote for a while in bed but was too tired, and full of food, to stay awake.

2015/06/27 (S) ARRL Field Day

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At 5 AM I was vaguely aware of the sound of rain. The cats were chasing each other through the house so I got up to make sure nothing was amiss, such as another mouse. They were just having a bout of morning friskiness. I added a little food up to their bowls, which drew their attention, and went back to bed.

My Amateur Radio vanity license plate. There were a LOT of these in the parking lot at the SLAARC Field Day site.

I finally woke up and got up about 8:15 AM and got dressed in a suitable manner for today’s American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Field Day event. The temperature was in the mid-50s, overcast and raining with blustery winds; not exactly the nice summer day we were all hoping for. Some of the members of the South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club (SLAARC) were gathering for breakfast at the usual place (Senate Coney Island) at the usual time (8 AM) but we obviously did not join them today.

I went to my office to retrieve my Sony DSLR and decided to turn on our Icom IC-7000 ham radio. I had it tuned to the SLAARC (K8VJ) repeater in South Lyon when Keith, KD8YYJ, announced his presence. He was driving from the west side of Howell to Wixom and seeing what repeaters he could hit. We chatted for 10 to 15 minutes and I invited him to stop by the SLAARC Field Day site at the South Lyon Township James F. Atchison Memorial Park.

I worked all day yesterday as part of the SLAARC Field Day setup crew. There was more setup to do starting at 9 AM this morning but the setup mostly involved radios, computers, Wi-Fi networking, and power. I was not in any humor to rush off into the clammy weather conditions, and Linda was up by this point, so we had breakfast. She found some Silk brand ‘yogurt’ at Meijer’s last week so we had that. It was OK. It is a creamy style yogurt, which is not my preference, but it was tasty enough. Bananas, cinnamon raisin bread, and juice rounded out the meal. Linda even made the coffee. I turned on the natural gas fireplace to ward off the chill in the living room where we lingered and enjoyed our morning brew.

The SLAARC Field Day operating stations use wirelessly networked computers (left) running N1MM Logger+ to record the contacts that are made. HF transceiver to the right.

I finally left for the Field Day site around 11 AM. The operating event started at 2 PM but the first of four meals was lunch today at noon and I wanted to capture photos of the rest of the setup and the lunch event. It was raining lightly when I arrived and continued to rain until I left at 2:15 PM. In between arrival and departure I took some photos and helped out a little bit, but there were plenty of people there taking care of what needed to be done.

Mike (W8XH) brought his Icom IC-2820H dual band mobile radio and several lengths of 50 ohm coax and we transferred those to my car. He then walked me through the various menus and functions his new Yaesu FTM-400DR/DE radio, a dual band (VHF/UHF) 50 Watt rig with digital voice capability and a color touch screen display. A group of SLAARC members recently purchased a Yaesu DR-1X repeater that works with the new Yaesu digital voice and data modes in addition to the traditional FM mode and are testing it as a replacement for the current, and very old, K8VJ repeater.

Mike’s IC-2820H is available for $350 but the FTM-400DR has a $100 rebate through the end of June, bringing the price down to $500. As much as I would like to have a VHF/UHF radio in my car I am looking at one of these radios to install in the cockpit of the bus so we can use it going down the road. The long-term plan is to put the Icom IC-7000 HF/VHF/UHF radio in our towed vehicle and get the Hi-Q 80-6 antenna mounted and operational in addition to the Diamond SG-7900 VHF/UHF antenna that is already on the Honda Element.

For base station use I would like to get an Elecraft K3s or Flex SDR rig. The K3s has become the rig of choice among the members of the SLAARC who are serious about working HF and contesting. Either of those are radios that could be fairly easily moved from the house to the bus when we travel. Antenna options in the bus could include running coax to the Hi-Q on the toad and/or a “flagpole” HF vertical that is mounted using the towbar receiver or a base stand that goes under one of the tires. An antenna switch would allow the use of the VHF/UHF antenna that was already installed for the cockpit radio. All of these “base station” options would obviously be for stationary use only.

[Photo 3 – HC]

The ARRL FIeld Day event showcases the ability of amateur radio operators to set up equipment in the field on short notice and keep it on the air for 24 hours, no matter what. The weather turned bad for the event. The portable generator is under the tent in the right foreground.

I uncoiled the coax cables that Mike lent me to see how long they were. There was a 5 foot piece that was too short for what I needed, and a piece that was approximately 40 feet, which was longer than I needed. The third piece was at least as long as the 40 footer. I “tagged” his coax with small white cable ties so I could identify them later and return them to him.

I did not want to mess around switching coax cables in the rain so I unboxed Mike’s Icom 2820 and got it set up to use with my existing antenna and transmission lines. I spent a little time with the manual and then powered it up. It was already configured from when Mike used it in his ham shack so I did not need to do any setup to use it. I monitored both the South Lyon 2m and Novi 440 MHz repeaters and was able to “hear” both of them, although the South Lyon signal was much better (stronger, quieter, clearer) than the Novi. A couple of SLAARC members were on the South Lyon repeater taking care of Field Day business. I waited a suitable amount of time after they were done and called for Mike (W8XH) and he came back right away.

We repeated the testing we had done last night. The performance with the 2m South Lyon repeater seemed to be much better but the performance on the 70cm Novi repeater was the same or worse with a fading component to the noise. I think we were on the air 15 to 20 minutes. Based on the test results from last night and this afternoon I think I have two separate issues that are probably interacting; the IC-7000 needs to be grounded and the 25 feet of coax from the cable entry box (CEB) to the radio (Go Box) needs to be shorter and much higher quality. I need to install the ground bar on the wall behind the ham radio desks and then purchase a suitable length of ground wire and run it from the CEB to the copper ground bar. I will also need to get a 15 foot length of 50 ohm LMR-400 coax from Scott (AC8IL) with an N-male connector on one end and a PL-259 connector on the other end.

Linda prepared our dinner at 5 PM. She made corn-on-the-cob and “cowgirl steaks,” a new (to us) vegetable protein product she found at Meijer’s. After dinner we drove back to the SLAARC Field Day site to socialize with club members at dinnertime. The weather at our house was still rainy with light-to-moderate winds and occasional stronger gusts. We arrived at the Field Day site to find a flurry of activity and strong, steady winds out of the north with continued sporadic rain.

Jim (KC8WMW) stays dry as he works the GOTA (Get On The Air) station in one of the tents.

The small red tent that was originally supposed to be the VHF tent was nowhere to be seen and at least eight people were engaged in trying to control and fold up the large canopy that the club purchased yesterday at Costco to serve as the combined VHF and GOTA tent. We quickly learned that the small tent, which was not being used, had collapsed and the large tent, which was unoccupied but full of radios and computers, had come unstaked and blown over in the wind. Those who were not helping with the equipment canopy were gathered in the food canopy. I pitched in on the equipment canopy rescue and Linda took the camera and joined the folks in the food tent.

After gathering up all of the pieces of the canopy and getting them back in the trailer some of the team added extra ropes and stakes to the windward end of the food canopy and both the 20m and 40m tents. Another part of the team, including me, got Marty’s (KB8JIU) satellite tracking equipment out of the screen room, which had been draped with solid plastic tarps to keep the rain out, and then took the room down, disassembled the legs, folded it up, and stuffed it in the trailer. The red tent was stuffed under a picnic table that was in the screen room so I grabbed that and put it in the trailer. The support pole for one end of our off-center-fed dipoles was bending over to the south more than we liked. Steve, N8AR, tied a rope around the existing rope, which was inline with the antenna and being used to keep it taught. He slid the second rope up the first one as far as he could get it to go and then pulled it out to the northwest (the antenna was oriented east-west with the tension rope running east off of the east end). He pulled it out until the support pole was reasonably vertical and I staked it down.

The winds really howled out of the north driving the rain before them. This shelter (from Costco) did not survive along with another tent and a screen room.

So the bad news was that some of our Field Day setup had not survived the weather which had not even reached severe conditions. The good news was that our generator was still producing power, all of our towers and antennas were intact and functional, we had our two key stations on the air, and our food canopy was full of people and hot food. Not the Field Day everyone had hoped for, but a great opportunity for teamwork and camaraderie and a learning experience to be sure, even if it was not the kind of lesson we wanted to learn.

We left around 7:30 PM and went to the New Hudson Lowe’s, which was very close to our Field Day site, where I bought 18 feet of AWG 6 stranded copper wire with a green sheath. As soon as the weather improves I plan to run this from the CEB to the ham shack and use it to connect the ground bar in the shack to the copper backplane (ground plane) in the CEB. I will then connect the ground on our Go Box (Icom IC-7000) to the ground bar and see if it helps with my noise issue.

Back at the house Linda wanted to watch an episode of NCIS Los Angeles, which we can now do thanks to our new OTA TV antenna. We then watched an episode of Christina Cooks, Christina Perillo’s vegan cooking show from a decade ago. These are still relevant and useful episodes and we especially enjoy them having seen and met her and her husband Robert on our two Taste of Health Holistic Holiday at Sea vegan cruises. Linda read and I wrote for a while before lights out and off to sleep.

2014/12/17-20 (W-S) Second Winter Birthday

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2014/12/17 (W) Clammy Q

The first rain came last night at 11 PM as forecast. It then rained off and on through noon today and we had little pools of standing water in low-lying areas, an unusual site here in Quartzsite. The cloud cover remained complete into the early afternoon, keeping the coach slightly chilly, but we just dressed accordingly.

Linda went for a morning walk and then spent part of the morning making broccoli, cauliflower, carrot soup. She served some for lunch along with vegan grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches (on sourdough bread) and fresh grapes. She went for another walk after lunch. Butch and Fonda left around 9 AM for her women’s bible study group and did not return until 2:30 PM.

Kuehn Street market area looking west towards Central Avenue (US-95). Quartzsite, AZ.

I spent the morning and the early part of the afternoon researching products for testing water hardness, checking-in to a few social media websites, updating our calendar, and continuing to clean up my e-mail accounts. Getting all of my accounts cleaned up is going to take weeks as I can only spend so many hours a day on this task before I need to do something else. Mid-afternoon I got our sewer hose out and connected it. I unscrewed the pressure gauge on our Valterra water pressure regulator, which has been stuck on 60 PSI for quite some time, and took it with me to Big Market to make sure the threads were the same before I bought a replacement.

When I got back I put a couple of wraps of Teflon tape around the threads, screwed it in by hand, and snugged it down with a pair of adjustable pliers. I turned on the water supply and the gauge registered ~35 PSI with no leaks. I adjusted the regulator pressure up to 45 PSI and called it good. It is an inexpensive gauge, not liquid filled, but it will do for now. I doubt that the old gauge can be repaired, but I will let Butch look at it before I throw it away. When we eventually redo the water bay I plan to install better gauges as part of a coach-mounted plumbing system. The reason to have one at the spigot, however, is to protect everything downstream from excessively high water pressure, including the hoses.

The name says it all. Located in Tyson Wells near Prospectors Panorama and the “Big Tent”.

Linda was outside reading when I left to go to Big Market but thicker clouds moved in from the west and it got too chilly to sit outside comfortably. We spent a quiet afternoon on the sofa with our cats and watched the skies darken as the afternoon advanced towards sunset. By 4:30 PM it was raining lightly again and a beautiful mist hung over the mountains to the southwest and west. Even though we are in the desert the humidity has been quite high on these cool, cloudy, rainy days. The conditions have not been uncomfortable, just unexpected.

Connie returned home with Joe at 5:15 PM but we did get to meet him because of the rain. He has been in a care facility in Blythe, California recovering from a scorpion sting so this was the first time he has been back in Q since we arrived.

Linda made a slightly fancier salad for dinner and served it along with the soup she made earlier in the day. Both were delicious and the soup really hit the spot on a cool and unusually clammy day in Q. Hot tea was also much appreciated. After dinner we had a quiet evening at home. Linda read while I worked at my computer. The seating in the coach seems less comfortable this year compared to last winter, or at least we are more aware of it, and we finally went to bed when we could no longer sit comfortably.

Some of the vendor tents in the Tyson Wells market area on the south side of Kuehn Street.

2014/12/18 (R) Schmoo Is Two

Today was grand-daughter Madeline’s 2nd birthday. It’s the first birthday where she is aware that it is a special day and the specialness has something to do with her. Of course at her age every day is a special day and has something to do with her, but this one is more specialer.

I shut my computer off last night before I went to bed. I don’t always do that, but I do occasionally. It’s a habit leftover from my Windows XP Pro days when I’ll-behaved programs that did not conform to Microsoft’s programming rules would fail to release memory and eventually the machine would run out and stop working correctly. The fix was to do a full power off shutdown and restart it. When I started it this morning it installed updates, although it did not indicate last night that there were any to install.

One of the things I did yesterday morning was get us registered as staff for the Escapees RV Club Escapade rally in March. After leaving messages on Monday and Tuesday for Kim, as instructed in an e-mail I received, Tamika (who answers the phone) indicated that she could handle the registration. I then got online and placed our Escapade clothing order. Hopefully it gets shipped to the rally venue, and not to our house in Michigan, as again the website did not match the instructions we received. I was glad to have these taken care of and checked off of my list as I find it a bit frustrating (irritating?) when I decide to do something and then cannot get it done. Just because we are retired does not mean we have nothing to do or all the time in the world to not do it.

View looking west of our coach and site in the late afternoon sun.

Breakfast was homemade granola with fresh blueberries and bananas, spicy V8, and coffee. Even though it was overcast and cool Linda went for her morning power walk. Besides the exercise (10,000+ steps per day) she enjoys having the time to herself and it helps her get familiar with the layout of a new place.

We did not interact at all with Butch and Fonda yesterday. Not that we needed to; by the time we pull out of Q in early March we will have been traveling/camping together for over three months. Add to that the fact that I was living at their house for much of October and November working on our bus, and theirs, and I can understand why they might want some time to themselves. They left early in the morning yesterday, so Fonda could attend a women’s bible study group, and did not return until mid-afternoon. They looked at something in their engine bay, presumably the air-compressor, and then retreated to their coach and we did not see or hear them the rest of the day.

Joe was out this morning on his power chair picking up after their miniature schnauzer Otis so we went outside and introduced ourselves. Butch came out soon after that, followed by Fonda and the dogs. We all stood (or sat) around and had a nice long chat. Connie eventually came out on her power chair with a basket of laundry. I carried that over to the laundry room for her and after she loaded it in the washing machine she joined the conversation.

Joe wanted to run some errands and Butch offered to drive him around so we took our car and went on an ‘explore.’ We found the Post Office annex on Plymouth Avenue, which is just a couple of trailers with P. O. Boxes but no counter service. I did not even notice a place to drop off outgoing mail. Quartzsite has two ZIP codes and there is some confusion regarding which one to use when. We do not expect to receive much mail while we are here, nor do we expect to receive a lot of UPS shipments, but we will probably need to receive a little bit of each and they need to be addressed correctly in order to get to us. We may end up using General Delivery for mail, as the Quartzsite Post Office does not have rural delivery (they do not deliver mail to street addresses), whereas UPS does deliver to street addresses, but they have to be correct. We plan to go to the main post office “downtown” tomorrow and clarify the situation.

Partial view of our winter compound looking north. Our bus is to the left and Butch & Fonda’s MC-9 is to the right. Look carefully and you will see someone napping. And why not.

We drove south on Riggles Avenue across I-10 at exit 19 to Kuehn Road and headed east in search of the location where the SKP gathering will be held. Kuehn becomes Dome Rock Road (east and west) as you head out of town into the desert. The 4-mile mark coincided with the end of the pavement and one of the BLM STVAs. We turned south and drove another mile into the desert on a freshly graded dirt road before turning around. The dirt road was actually better than the crumbling pavement, which is clearly not being maintained. We then headed back to the area of Kuehn Street, to either side of AZ-95, where most of the seasonal vendors are (will be) located.

We had some Indian Fry Bread for lunch and it was both tasty and filling. Linda had cinnamon and granulated sugar while I had honey and powdered sugar. We walked the whole area and at least peaked in each tent while spending a bit more time with a few vendors. We were going to walk past the Beef Jerky shop but the lady proprietor started chatting with us. As it turned out she was a vegetarian and had a nice selection of non-animal products. Which just goes to prove the old adage “you never know.”

Linda got a TXT message from our son letting us know that our grand-daughter was home from day care so we headed back to the coach. We borrowed Butch and Fonda’s Verizon Jetpack MiFi and used it to Facetime with our son, daughter-in-law, and grand-daughter. (Their MiFi has an unlimited data plan; ours does not.) We got to wish Madeline a happy birthday and watch her open her present from us.

View looking south on Lollipop Ln from the entrance to our compound.

When Linda returned the MiFi device on her way to her second walk of the day Butch let her know that Joe and Connie wanted the six of us to go out to dinner, so she planned her walk to be back in plenty of time. Joe suggested we try the Main Street Eatery as they have a garden burger on the menu that he likes. It turned out to have cheese mixed in with the patty so we did not get one but Linda had a brown rice and veggies dish and I had French fries with ketchup and Tabasco sauce.

In a reversal of our normal routine, I was tired and went to bed early while Linda stayed up reading and playing her online spelling games.

2014/12/19 (F) Hasta La Vista

When we were at the Walmart in Parker last weekend we looked for holiday cards but all they had was a limited selection of Christmas cards. The last few years we have done a “year in review” letter with captioned photos and short blurbs about each month. We did not bring a printer with us so Linda searched for places that could print this for us and found one in Blythe, California.

Quartzsite is in the Sonoran Desert and many of the properties have Sugauro Cactus. Palo Verde and Greasewood bushes are also common with some smaller cactus, but no lawn grass.

Quartzsite is in the Sonoran Desert and many of the properties have Sagauro Cactus. Palo Verde and Greasewood bushes are also common with some smaller cactus, but no lawn grass.

Breakfast was spicy V8 juice, cinnamon raisin toast, sourdough toast with orange marmalade, and coffee. At dinner last night at the Main Street Eatery the waitress/owner, Michelle, mentioned that a Smart & Final (Extra) store had opened in Blythe and she was excited to have one so close to Quartzsite. Blythe is only 20 miles away; about half the distance to Parker and a quarter of the distance to Yuma. Although it is a non-membership warehouse store she said they also have a lot of good quality fresh produce. We were prepared for Quartzsite to be challenging for us food wise, but so far it has been OK and is looking up.

Linda went for her morning walk and while she was out I strolled down to Herb’s Hardware in search of a piece of plastic pipe with an appropriate inside diameter for fabricating the insert I need for recharging our water softener. Although Big Market is a good place for this kind of general purpose hardware I went to Herb’s because it is on Central Avenue (AZ-95) not far from where we are staying. It was small but well-stocked. I did not find exactly what I needed, of course, but I found something that might work. It was worth $2.50 to find out. The problem is that I am looking for a part that does not exist so I have to repurpose/fabricate something using whatever tools I have with me, can borrow from Butch, or buy in town.

When I got back to the coach I spent much of the rest of the day working on our holiday letter with breaks for food and a little socializing. During an afternoon break Butch and I disassembled my old, non-functioning, water pressure gauge so I could see how it works. For lunch Linda served the leftover fajita veggies and seitan over basmati rice, which was yummy. For dinner she made a tomato, mushroom, onion ragu with a little broccoli thrown in and served it over half of a baked potato. It was very satisfying on a cool evening.

‘Q’ is criss-crossed with “washes” (drainage ditches) that are usually dry and used by ATVs. This is one of the smaller ones, but is big enough for a full-size SUV. When the flash floods come (springtime) these washes fill and flow fast and a dangerous.

Joe and Connie’s son, Dale, and other family members drove down from Nevada after work today and were expected to arrive sometime after midnight. The plan was to pick up Joe and Connie, load their minivan into the “toter,” and head back; a nine hour trip each way. Given that plan we did not get to meet Dale, et al, and said “farewell, see you later” to Joe and Connie before we all turned in for the evening.

2014/12/20 (S) Yuma, AZ

Yesterday Butch suggested we that we drive to Yuma today so that is what we did. Quartzfest, the RV/ARO gathering, takes place the last full week of January at the BLM Road Runner STVA near mile marker 99 on US-95 south of Quartzsite. We wanted to find that location and just see the desert south of town. Joe had also suggested that we take the Old Yuma Road down to La Paz. Linda had found the road on her iPad yesterday and what looked like a small community about four miles out, but the community was not named on the map. From Kuehn and Central it looked to be a five mile hike, if we were inclined to walk it.

I tried logging in to the Prevost Community (PC) website last night but our login did not work. I contacted the site administrators and had two e-mails waiting for me this morning with the info I needed. I logged in and posted some information and a question about our turbo boost and dashboard gauge and searched the site for posts about the Level Low system. I also checked the Prevost Owners Group (POG) website but there seemed to be more information on PC about older H3s and 92 series Detroit Diesel engines.

Map of the Yuma, AZ downtown / historic area.

Connie called around 8:30 AM and asked me to take care of a couple of things at the site, which I did. We left for Yuma at 10:15 AM and drove south on US-95 through 85 miles of mostly scrubby desert surrounded by mostly barren mountains until we got near Yuma. Much of the drive was through BLM administered land and part of it was through the U. S. Army Yuma Proving Grounds. The area around Yuma was unexpectedly green but we learned that the area grows more leafy greens during the winter months than anyplace else on the planet

By the time we got into town and got our bearings it was time for lunch. We spotted a Golden Corral and Butch assured us they had a nice salad bar, and probably other things we could eat, so we went there. We all ate too much, which is one of the reasons we rarely go to buffets of any kind, but the food was OK and we did have quite a variety to choose from.

Butch was feeling a bit sleepy after lunch so I drove us down to the Quartermasters Depot Historic Park on the Colorado River. The other side of the river was California, the closest we have been on this trip, but we did not cross over the bridge. We spent some time in the visitor information center reading about the depot and picking up literature for various area attractions and activities but did not pay the $4 per person admission and go in. We then drove around to the parking lot for the Yuma Territorial Prison Historic Park but did not park the vehicle and get out. Admission is $6 per person and we will come back another day (and leave earlier in the morning) so we have time to visit these and other sites.

Historic Quartermaster Depot State Park. Note that the cover of the wagon says “AT” (Arizona Territory).

While we were driving back to Q we both got messages on our smartphones from our son with pictures and video of our grand-daughter Madeline’s birthday party. All of her aunts and uncles and cousins were there and she was having a wonderful time. While we would like to be present on such occasions there are choices to be made. We have discussed celebrating Madeline’s “half birthday” each year on June 18^th as we will likely be home at that time of year.

Scenic travels notwithstanding, chores still have to be done. When we got back to camp I dumped the waste tanks, which were near full, and topped up the fresh water tank which was at approximately 40%. The last time we dumped was a week ago Thursday at the SKP Dream Catcher RV Park in Deming, New Mexico so we went nine days without being conservative in our use of water. We did top up the fresh water tank shortly after we arrived in Q with approximately 50 gallons of softened water and today I added approximately 75 gallons (60% of capacity). Although it is not essential, I like to fill the fresh tank whenever I empty the waste tanks. Our waste tank level gauges do not work but the fresh water tank gauge does, so it gives us an approximate idea of the state of the waste tanks.

As long as I was doing water chores I borrowed another Hach SofChek test strip from Butch and checked the hardness of the water coming out of the water softener. It registered between 1.5 and 3 grains per gallon (gpg). The water coming out of the spigot is testing at 25 gpg, the highest amount the test strips can register, so the softener now appears to be doing its job after having been recharged. Linda recorded the details in the notepad we are using to log these things.

Butch did a minor upgrade on their ITR Oasis Combi hydronic heating system that should make a big difference in their comfort. He cut out 15″ sections from the rigid metal supply and return fuel lines and replaced them with rubber fuel lines. The rubber lines will isolate the unit, which is mounted to the floor of the bay, from the plywood ceiling of the bay to which the metal fuel lines are clamped coming back from the fuel tank. The plywood ceiling is also the house subfloor and the pulsing of the fuel pump was being telegraphed throughout their coach. The rubber lines greatly reduced the noise.

A view of the Quartermaster Depot SP.

Linda called Brendan back and we got a chance to sing “happy birthday” to Madeline. She also got to call her sister (Sister Marilyn) and chat for a bit. Marilyn is considering flying down for a visit and staying in the guest apartment but we are unsure yet of the timing. Speaking of flying, Linda booked her flight home and back yesterday. She will fly home from Phoenix on February 17 to take care of various tax returns and bakery accounting details and fly back on March 1st.

We had a quiet evening at home. Because we had such a big lunch we did not have dinner, as such, just a little hummus with some chips and a small glass of Leelanau Cellars Winter White wine. Linda read and I worked on selecting/editing photos for our 2014 year in review holiday letter.

2014/11/24-30 Together and Apart

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2014/11/24 (M) Martin Diesel

I set my alarm for 6 AM and got up when it sounded. I finished packing all of the things I had in the bedroom and then stripped the bed. At 6:45 AM I moved everything to the bus and started my final departure routine. I set the car for towing, opened all of the auxiliary air valves, and switched the chassis batteries on. I cleared the kitchen counter and checked that the refrigerator doors were latched. I then turned off the shore power, stowed the cord, secured the utility bay, and checked that all of the bay doors were closed and locked. I started the main engine and put it in high idle to help build air pressure. Once the bus was running I shut off the lights in the house and locked the door behind me.

I pulled out of Butch and Fonda’s place at 7:28 AM with the temperature in the low 50’s and strong winds out of the southwest. I took SR-16 east to US-31 south to US-24 east to Roanoke (IN) where I turned east on County Road N 900 E (Vine St.). I followed N 900 E, a two-lane road with a lot of heavy truck traffic, for about four miles where it became I-469 with exits for I-69. I-469 took me around the south and east sides of Ft. Wayne, Indiana to exit 21 where I rejoined US-24 eastbound. Except for the wind it was a shorter and easier run that staying on US-24 all the way to I-69.

The stretch of US-24 east of Ft. Wayne, Indiana is apparently new enough that my relatively new and updated Rand McNally RVND GPS did not know it existed and kept trying to route me onto the old roadway. Although not a limited access highway, it was posted at 65 MPH and I was able to travel comfortably at 62 MPH with very light traffic for the entire trip. I crossed into Ohio and continued on towards Defiance. I passed the main exit for Defiance and took exit 28, Domersville Road (OH-284), a little farther to the east. I headed south for about a mile and turned left on Deerwood, which intersects with County Road 424 (OH-284 passes over CR-424). Another mile east along the north bank of the Maumee River and I was at Martin Diesel. The new speedometer/odometer worked perfectly and I did not get a Check Engine Light the entire trip. At this point the “fuel temperature voltage high” problem is either fixed or has stopped registering fault codes. My transmission retarder was still not operational but I managed my deceleration by anticipating the need to stop and manually selecting lower gears. I arrived with the house batteries at 97% state of charge, indicating that the 24 VDC Zena power generating system appeared to be doing its job maintaining the house battery bank.

I pulled off the road, parked, and went in. Jim Martin wasn’t there but Paul seemed to know I was coming. I had to unhook the car and move it out of the way. I then had to back the bus between a racing trailer and a light/power pole with no more than 18″ to spare on each side. I raised the tag axle to shorten the turning radius and pulled around behind the building to the spot where they wanted it.

The motorcoach at Martin Diesel in Defiance, Ohio.

Paul assigned Jay to work on the generator and Mike came out to look at it. The hour meter on the unit showed 3099 hours and the one in the house systems panel showed 2625 hours but I had no idea if either of those were correct. Mike said it was important to replace the rear bearing on the generator before 5,000 hours and I decided to have them go ahead and do it. The unit was put in service in October 1990, after all, and I have no idea how many hours are actually on it or if/when/how it has been serviced. Jay changed the oil and filter, the fuel filter, and the air filter, and replaced the drive belt. I got a spare set of filters and a belt to take with me.

When Jay was done servicing the unit he started the unit to check for leaks and check the speed (frequency). It was running at 62.3 Hz with no load, and that is where they like to have them set. Jay pulled the cover off the free end of the generator and checked the gap, which he said was good (equal all the way around). He showed me the part he had to remove to get to the rear bearing and explained that it could take up to 2.5 hours to complete the job. That would have delayed my departure enough that I would arrive home after dark, or have to spend the night there. Getting home after dark was not an ideal scenario on such a windy day and I was anxious to get home rather than spend a night on the road. Jay also indicated that a replacement part was no longer available should this one get damaged. He had done this job before and was confident he could do it without damaging the part, but it was clear that he wasn’t keen on the idea, especially as he was working outside in falling temperatures and serious wind.

Jay and I discussed the situation with Paul and his opinion was to hold off and replace the bearing as part of a more extensive out-of-vehicle overhaul. Between the time required, the risk involved, and the “fact” that the unit was only 62% of the way to the recommended replacement hours, I decided to have them quit while we ahead.

Jay wanted to run the unit under load for a while so tried to turn on the air-conditioners, but they were all dead; no power. I turned on the electric toe kick heaters instead, but only the front and rear ones would run, so I also turned on the auxiliary air compressor. The refrigerator was running as was the house battery charger. The bathroom electric heater is on its own circuit breaker and Just this past week I tied in an outlet to that circuit for the vacuum cleaner and used it as recently as yesterday. I checked and had voltage and current on both legs, so it seemed unlikely that the GenSet was the problem.

The end of the generator exposed to get access to the rear bearing.

Jay had the work wrapped up by 2 PM and wrote it up so I could settle the bill. I had to back the bus out and get it turned around so I could hook up the car and pull out headed west on CR-424 back to Deerwood and then north on Domersville and back to US-24. My route home from there was US-24 east to I-475 north to US-23 north. I was unsure of the status of the construction work on Grand River Avenue so I sent Linda a TXT message before I pulled out. She confirmed that the construction was done so I exited US-23 onto westbound I-96, took exit 145 for Grand River Avenue towards Howell and then north on Hacker to our street. I pulled into the driveway at 5:02 PM. The wind was very strong and gusty out of the southwest the entire drive, and the temperature had dropped into the 30’s, but the bus and I did just fine, even without the transmission retarder.

Linda got home about five minutes after me. I turned on the outside RV outlet, plugged the coach in, closed various air valves, and turned off the chassis batteries. We sat for a while in the living room with the fire logs blazing and enjoyed a cup of hot tea. Butch had called me while I was driving so I called him back around 6 PM and brought him up to date on the electrical issues I discovered while I was at Martin Diesel. After another cup of tea Linda started fixing dinner while I unloaded clothes, technology, and some food items from the bus. We had an Amy’s Pizza Margherita for dinner with some Red Guitar Sangria. Yum. I enjoyed my time at Butch and Fonda’s, and got a lot done while I was there, but it was nice to be home.

2014/11/25 (T) New Tires

We slept in and had a lazy start to the day, enjoying our morning coffee in the living room to the warmth and glow of our new natural gas fireplace logs. I finished up yesterday’s blog post and continued working on the article for the GLCC newsletter about the October Surplus and Salvage rally. As much as we both would have liked a down day, and could have used one, we had too much to do to get ready for our family gathering on Thanksgiving and to get us, the bus, and the house ready for our departure on Sunday.

The Salvation Army was scheduled to pick up our old propane range today sometime between 8 AM and 7 PM, so that required us to coordinate our errands so that one of us was always at home until they got here. As it turned out the Salvation Army truck showed up at 9:15 AM, loaded the range, and were on their way by 9:30 AM. That freed up how we went about the rest of our day.

Linda got several calls from the bakery and ended up working on software issues off and on throughout the day. She cut my hair, which was overdue, after which I worked on the design for the organizer I’m going to build for the Honda Element. I unloaded the back of the Element so I could take measurements and to make room for the wood I needed for the project. I called Bill Gerrie in Ontario to discuss the transmission and engine computer issues that have appeared with the bus. I had no sooner finished the conversation when it was time for lunch.

After lunch I took a box of gifts for my sister to the UPS Store in Howell. I stopped at Teeko’s Coffee & Teas just up the street and ordered three different coffees for pickup on Friday. I then went to Discount Tire to get new tires for the Element. This is the busy season for Discount Tire and it took two hours before they were done, but to their credit that is exactly how long they told me it would take. I switched from the B. F. Goodrich trail-rated tire that was on the car to a similar, but better rated, Cooper Tire. I was told that the new tires should be a bit quieter and have better traction on slick surfaces but still hold up to the dirt roads in our area and when we travel.

Home Depot was next door to the tire store so I stopped there to see if they would cut plywood sheets to smaller sizes. They would, but they had pieces already cut to 2’x4′ and 2’x2′. I had planned to use 3/4″ plywood, but the 1/2″ pieces seemed sufficiently strong for my purpose. I assessed my design with respect to these sizes and decided they would work. I picked up some 36″ long 1″X1″ material to use as cleats. The size of this material made it easy to handle and get into my car. I bought a bottle of Tightbond wood glue but forgot to buy screws, so I stopped at Lowe’s and picked up some nice star drive 1-1/4″ outdoor wood screws with special points and a cutaway drill-like design. I will still pre-drill the holes to make sure the cleats do not split.

Linda had a 4 PM appointment to have her hair cut by Renee at the J. C. Penney’s salon at 12 Oaks Mall, so she was gone by the time I got home. I unloaded the wood I just bought, threw some laundry in the dryer, and got back to work on the GLCC rally article. Linda got home shortly thereafter and started putting dinner together. She made a whole wheat pasta with sun-dried tomatoes, onions, garlic, and greens lightly sautéed in olive oil. We had a glass of the Red Guitar Sangria to go with it. I have missed her cooking while I was away working on the bus.

After dinner I sent a TXT message to Chuck to let him know I was back and had some issues with the coach. I finished the GLCC rally article and sent it to the newsletter editors, Scott and Tami Bruner, and the rally hosts Pat and Vickie Lintner.

The things on our list that did not get done today included the following bus-related items:

Completely unloading the house portion of the bus.
Cleaning the interior of the bus.
Checking/diagnosing the bus AC house circuits.
Removing/checking/reinstalling the ATEC (?) connector on the DDEC II.

I also need to move items from the garage to the library that cannot be allowed to freeze and remove the wasp nest from the front of the house.

I plan to work on the organizer for the Element tomorrow morning and leave the bus stuff for Friday and Saturday. Brendan is bringing Madeline over tomorrow. She is going to stay overnight and we will take her to Meghan’s house on Thursday for the family Thanksgiving gathering. We will get some work done while Madeline is sleeping, but she gets our full attention when she is awake.

2014/11/26 (W) Return of Schmoo

I awoke at 5 AM and realized fairly quickly that I was not going to fall back asleep so I got up, put on my nice warm winter robe and fleece-lined slippers, and worked at my computer and iPad until Linda got up a little before 8 AM. I copied and pasted draft blog posts from my e-mail to MS Word from yesterday all the way back to November 7th. I have tried to write every day but have not uploaded to the web since the end of September. Next I organized the photographs I have taken this November. I then started updating the MS Excel spreadsheet I use to list my various bus projects and track their status.

When Linda arose she made a pot of coffee, so I took a break and enjoyed the brew. I had planned to start working on the plywood divider for the Back of the Honda Element, and Linda had planned to start preparing some of the food for tomorrow, until Brendan called at 8:45 AM to let us know he and Madeline would be at our house in about an hour, if that was alright with us. Of course it was. Given the short time until they arrived I continued working at my computer and Linda took a call from the bakery.

Brendan and Madeline arrived a little before 10 AM. Madeline was quickly engaged with the house and her special toys and books. Brendan stuck around through lunch and then headed back to Ann Arbor. Schmoo went down for her nap at 12:30 PM and I took advantage of her nap time to start building the first of two plywood dividers for the car. The first thing was to remove the passenger side rear seat from the Element, which took both of us. Linda then worked at her desk on bakery and personal items and made two relishes for tomorrow: regular cranberry-orange relish, and “Mama Stamberg’s Cranberry Relish,” made with cranberries, onions (Linda substituted shallots), horseradish, and “sour cream” (Linda used a vegan version, naturally). At the point where I had to assemble two sides and a shelf Linda helped hold the pieces together while I secured them with glue and screws.

We finished the divider, except for a couple of notches I have to cut out, around 3:15 PM just as Madeline was starting to wake up from her nap. Linda got her up and dressed at 3:30 PM. They played at various games while I took a little time to call my sister. I played with Madeline until dinnertime at 5:30 PM, giving Linda a chance to get the meal on the table. We all had the same thing; vegan “chicken nuggets”, corn kernels, baked sweet potatoes, and brown-n-serve dinner rolls with some orange juice to wash it down.

I amused Madeline while Linda cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher. We played at various things that delight an almost two-year-old child until 7:10 PM when I turned on the fireplace logs and dimmed the lighting in the living room. We started putting toys away and creating a calm mood to counter Madeline’s tendency to get slightly frantic just before she’s tired enough to go to bed. Linda got her changed into her pajama’s (“jammies”) at 7:30 PM and we all sat and watched the fire dance in the fireplace for a while until Madeline said she was ready to go to bed.

Once she was asleep we checked the fit of the divider around the air-compressor and determined it was good. I had a brief call from Pat Lintner about the GLCC rally article and exchanged TXT messages with Chuck about our transmission issues. I did a final check of e-mail and shut my computer down for the night. We had a few cookies and then turned in for the evening.

2014/11/27 (R) Giving Thanks

Linda was up at 6:30 AM and working in the kitchen on dishes for the family gathering later in the day. Madeline woke up at 7:00 and Linda had her up shortly thereafter. I got up and put on my robe and supervised her first play of the day while Linda got breakfast ready. Linda made a pot of oatmeal with raisins, which we enjoyed, but Schmoo preferred her banana and “toast” (bread) with peanut butter. We all had orange juice and the adults had coffee. I suspect Madeline will learn to enjoy coffee much younger than most people, but not for quite a while yet.

There are lots of little rituals at this age and one of them is the washing of hands and face after a meal. Madeline likes our hall bathroom because the mirrored walls on three sides of the counter allow her to see an infinite set of receding images of herself. She and I sat in the living room and played with Legos while Linda cleaned up the breakfast dishes. I then took a shower while Linda played with Schmoo. Once I was dressed I took over child amusement duties while Linda showered and dressed and gathered up all of the stuff that had to go with us to our daughter and son-in-law’s house for Thanksgiving.

We took two cars with Linda driving Madeline in her car and me following in mine. Our son and daughter-in-law are going to keep Linda’s Honda Civic for the winter, so they will take it to their house after dinner and I will drive us home. Linda had finished the holiday and birthday shopping over the weekend and we brought all of the presents with us, to be distributed and opened at the appropriate time in our absence. We got to Chris and Meghan’s house around 11 AM. Katie (Chris’ daughter) was already there, having spent the night, and Brendan and Shawna showed up around 11:30 AM, completing the family gathering.

Madeline was very excited to see her parents, of course, although she is also very comfortable being away from them if she is with people she knows and trusts. She was a busy girl for about an hour and then went down for her afternoon nap. That gave the adults a chance to visit and finish the dinner preparations. Madeline got up at 2:30 PM, a shorter than normal nap, and was active until dinnertime. We brought a bottle of champagne that we used to toast the occasion before sitting down to eat at 4 PM.

We had a nice assortment of dishes for dinner, many of them vegan in consideration of how Linda and I choose to eat as well as Meghan’s food sensitivities. The meal was the combined effort of Linda, Brendan, and Meghan and included turkey and gravy that Brendan made and everyone but us had. Everything else was vegan. Linda made Tofurkey and gravy, dinner rolls, cranberry orange salad, Mama Stamberg’s cranberry salad, quinoa salad with pomegranates and pistachios, and mashed sweet potatoes with currants and spices. Meghan made white chunk-style mashed potatoes, corn bread stuffing, and green bean salad. Brendan and Shawna brought a couple bottles of wine, a 2012 German Kreuznacher Kronenberg Riesling Spatlese and a 2010 French Chateau Le Gay Bordeaux. It is fun having adult children who enjoy and appreciate these things.

Shawna and Meghan changed Madeline’s dress and Brendan took “Christmas” pictures, hoping to get one they could use on their holiday card. While the photo shoot was going on Meghan made an avocado chocolate mousse for dessert. She served the mousse with fresh berries and also had a spiced pumpkin cake she had made earlier. Both were vegan and amazing. The entire meal was skillfully prepared and very tasty; as good a Thanksgiving dinner as one could want.

We visited for a while after dinner and Katie received 18th birthday gifts from her dad and Meghan and from us. Brendan and Shawna gathered up their stuff first and got Madeline bundled up against the cold for the ride home. Linda gave Brendan the registration and insurance and two keys to her car and he drove it to their house for the winter. We packed up some leftovers and left about 15 minutes later. When we got home I made some green tea while Linda called her sister, who spends Thanksgiving with their brother Ron, his wife Mary, some of Ron’s children and her family. At least that is what they usually do. I checked e-mail and realized that MS Outlook 2013 has been shuffling e-mails to my junk folders since July, so I dragged all of them back to my various inboxes. We watched an episode of NCIS on the iPad and then went to sleep.

The notion of Thanksgiving, of setting aside a special day to “give thanks,” is based at its core on the idea that something outside ourselves is responsible for what we have in life, whatever degree of good fortune (or lack thereof) we might have experienced, either in the prior year, or cumulatively. For many people this is a giving of thanks to a higher being that is globally credited with this responsibility. That idea holds no meaning for us, of course, but we certainly recognize that there are numerous people who daily impact our situation in life and are (or should be) thanked for what they do. When the interactions are direct there is the opportunity to say “thank you” and we try to do that. Yesterday and this morning, for example, we were gently reinforcing Madeline’s use of “please” and “thank you” in her common, daily interactions with people.

I am certainly glad to be with family on a day that is set aside for enjoying their company and reflecting on the fact that all of us have so far worked out very good lives and have bright futures to the extent they are under our control. I looked up the term “gratitude” and although Wikipedia links it to “thankfulness” and “appreciation,” and discusses its religious connections at length, it also discusses the recent interest in the study of gratitude by psychologists as a positive emotion that enriches our own lives and the lives of others. I am, in that sense, grateful for the people in my life and the life we have and do not have a better term to express a conscious recognition of the quality of my life and the importance of the people in in it.

2014/11/28b (F) Black Friday

The leftovers have barely cooled off and the commercial holiday season is red hot. I know, because we are receiving a steady flow of e-mails alerting us to “once-in-lifetime, lowest-price-of-the-season, never-to-be-seen-again, Black Friday” deals. Pardon me if I’m a bit bah humbug about this, but I am still digesting my dinner from yesterday and I am just not that found of crowds, shopping or otherwise. No, we slept in, had our usual breakfast, drank our coffee by the warmth and glow of our fireplace, played a few games on our iPads (because we are retired and we can), and got ready for our final two-day push to get the bus, the house, and us ready for the winter.

We are more relaxed about all of this than we were last year for several reasons. For one, we are now “experienced” so we have a clearer picture of what we need to do and how long it will take. For another, we are leaving 20 days earlier than last year with a weather forecast that is still colder than we would like but without significant snow or the threat of ice. We also do not have to be at specific places on specific dates, so we have more flexibility in our preparations and travels than we had last year. We have a different guy (Kerry Fear) doing snow removal this year and are more comfortable that he will reliably take care of our driveway since he lives nearby and only does about a dozen residences (no commercial properties) including our neighbor to the rear (Sean) which is where we got his name. Finally, we now have natural gas being piped to the house and are disconnected from our propane tanks, which means we do not have to worry about running out of fuel and not being able to get more and/or being gouged with spot market prices.

Once we got busy our first task was to put the air-compressor box in the Honda Element to see how it fit and so I could get final measurements for the second box that will go behind the driver side rear seat. We then unloaded the house portion of the coach and brought everything into the (fixed) house so we could: a) clean the inside (of the bus), and; b) sort through all of the “stuff,” decide what was going back onboard, stage it for reloading, and store what was staying behind.

I helped with the unloading process and then busied myself finishing the air-compressor box. I had planned to build a second box to put behind the driver side passenger seat. However, once I got the air-compressor box trimmed and we got it installed there wasn’t enough room for the second box. I also thought about building a shelf to put under the dinette seat so the dinette base could slide under it, allowing us to store things under the seat without them being disturbed by the in/out motion of the table. I did not have pieces of plywood the size I needed and Linda correctly noted that we planned to tear out that side of the bus next year anyway so perhaps this wasn’t the best use of my time. She’s good that way.

Instead of building things I started sorting and staging all of the stuff we took off the bus this morning. Some of it is staying home, some will go in the car, some will go in the bus bays, and the rest will go in the living area of the bus. Somewhere in the middle of that process we took a break and had some of the leftover quinoa salad, only Linda served it warm instead of cold. We had a few grapes to go with it.

I decided that I wanted to take our extra Webasto burner assembly with us with the hope that I might order a blower bearing kit and new style banjo fuel fittings and rebuild the burner once we get settled. The burner was installed in Butch’s old Aqua-Hot so I removed it. We put it in a 10 gallon ZipLock bag, wrapped it in bubble wrap, and stored it vertically in a 5 gallon utility bucket with the nozzle and ignition electrodes pointing up. The bucket had a gasket sealed lid and we had been using it to store cat food until today. The burner is a very expensive assembly and we needed to ensure it did not get damaged.

While Linda worked at her desk I investigated the problem with the (lack of) AC power to the air-conditioners. I consulted the conversion documentation, which includes a list of the numbered wires in the 12VDC distribution panel in the front center ceiling area, and it indicated that wire #17 was the feed for the air-conditioning switches. I located wire #17 in the panel and checked for voltage on the feed and load sides of the 2 Amp blade fuse. I had 13.3 volts on the feed side but nothing on the load side indicating a blown fuse. I pulled it out and examined it and it was definitely open. I checked a replacement fuse for continuity before I inserted it but forgot to check for voltage on the load side before turning on the switch for the rear air-conditioner. (I chose the rear air unit because it does not involve the Mac solenoid air valve that controls the shutters in the front of the spare tire compartment where the front and middle air-conditioner compressors are located.) I did not get power to the unit so I pulled the new fuse and it was blown open. Clearly there is a short but I will have to track it down another time. It was getting dark and dinner was about to be served.

We had leftovers for dinner; Tofurkey with vegan gravy, cranberry-orange relish, and dinner rolls. Linda also roasted some fresh asparagus to round out the meal. After dinner I drove to Teeko’s to pick up our coffee order but discovered that they closed at 4:30 PM today so I drove back home. It was the end of the evening rush hour, dark, snowing, and Black Friday so I had no interest in being out on the road or in any stores.

I brought both of our GPS units into the house intending to update them tonight, but it’s going to be tomorrow. I called Butch and talked to him briefly, and then called Chuck and left a message. He called back and we had a nice chat.

Our pace was not frantic but we were busy most of the day and very focused on getting certain things done. The bus is clean (on the inside), we are in the process of organizing all of the stuff that has to go onboard, and the car is set up so we can take the large air-compressor and still carry lots of other stuff, including a spare starter motor for the bus engine and a spare Webasto burner head for the Aqua-Hot. Trying to figure out what spare parts to carry is a never-ending process, and whatever we bring we usually don’t need but wish we had brought something we left at home. It is one of those things we just have to accept about this lifestyle.

2014/11/29 (S) 73s

Today was our last opportunity to have breakfast with our friends from the South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club (SLAARC) until we return from our winter adventure. We overslept, got there about 15 minutes later than normal and left earlier than usual. “Seven Three” (singular) or “Seven Threes” (plural) is what ham radio operators often say when concluding a conversation. It’s a shorthand for “goodbye” or “farewell till next time.” It isn’t shorter when spoken, but it’s a carryover from CW operation (Continuous Wave, more commonly known as Morse code) where it only involves keying two numbers. Ham radio has a lot of things like that which adds to the challenge and enjoyment of the hobby.

From breakfast we headed to a couple of different banks, Walmart, and finally Teeko’s Coffee and Tea to pick up our order of custom roasted beans. We then headed home to start loading the bus. Linda kept adding items to her shopping list as she only wanted to make one trip to the store if possible.

It was a busy day and would be difficult, and perhaps a bit tedious, to try to describe exactly what we did and in what order. Basically, I sorted stuff according to where it had to go and then loaded/organized the car and the front bus bay while Linda took care of organizing the living area, which included all of the food and clothing. I replaced our sewer hoses with the new RhinoFLEX components from Camco and filled our fresh water tank with nice filtered/softened water.

While Linda was at the store I worked on the transmission retarder problem. I disconnected all of the harnesses from the DDEC II engine control module and checked for bent pins. All of the pins where present and straight so I carefully reconnected all of the harnesses. I checked the front and rear chassis electrical bays and found three circuit breakers that had tripped; one in the front that had something to do with the transmission retarder switch and two in the rear, one of which had to do with the retarder and dashboard “tattle tale” light. The other one was marked for the air dryer. I connected the chassis batteries and turned the ignition switch to the ‘on’ position and checked that the circuit breakers did not trip.

I decided I wanted to start the engine so I turned on the electric block heater, the Aqua-Hot electric heating element, and the Aqua-Hot engine pre-heat pump and let them run for an hour. I started the bus and backed it up about 10 feet and then pulled it forward to its original parking place. I had the retarder switch on with my foot off the accelerator and on the brake pedal, but the tattle tale light still did not come on. I took the cover off of the dashboard and removed the light bulb from the tattle tale to see if it was burned out. It wasn’t, so I buttoned everything back up. I put all of the tools back in the correct tool boxes and loaded them into their storage places for travel.

Linda returned from her shopping trip and finished loading food onboard the bus. She also picked up some of our favorite food from La Marsa; crushed Lentil soup, green salad, and Koshary, with pocket bread and garlic spread. Not having to cook gave her the time she needed to go through the mail and pay bills.

I made my first pass at selecting clothes so Linda could load them on the bus while I made a run to Walmart for batteries for her BAHA and some shaving cream. I stopped at Lowe’s for some 1.25″ 8×32 machine screws (that might work to mount the inclinometer) and some decorative head wood screws (that might work in place of the filler plugs used to hide the screws in the woodwork). I then stopped at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts for two 12 VDC automotive accessory plugs.

When I got home Linda heated up dinner and we enjoyed a nice meal that did not take a lot of time/effort on her part. After dinner I started a second load of laundry (Linda did the first one) and then took my computer, digital camera, and both GPS units downstairs to my desk. I transferred photo files to the NAS drive that will remain at home and then went through the update process on each GPS. When the laundry was done I made my final clothing selections. I did not have time to gather up CD’s, so we will do that in the morning. As usual, the GPS update process took a very long time so I left it to run overnight and went to bed.

2014/11/30 (N) Arizona Bound (Eventually)

I woke up at 4:30 AM and got up to check on the progress of the GPS update process. I also needed to install 96 updates on my Linux box so I started that process. While I was in my office I put pre-cut pieces of insulation in the three windows of my office and the window in the sump pump closet. I went back to bed at 5:30 AM and slept until Linda got up at 7 AM.

We skipped breakfast and started the final loading of the bus, which included shoes, coats, and computers. When everything was onboard we connected the car for towing. We then disconnected the AC shorepower cord, stowed it for travel, and turned our attention to closing up the house.

Linda closed all the blinds, set the thermostats back, and opened all of the cabinets that contained water pipes while I went around and poured RV antifreeze down every trap in the house. She also turned off the pilot light for the gas fireplace logs. We turned off the well pump, shut the valve on the incoming water line, unplugged all of the water treatment equipment, and removed the batteries from the softener and sanitizer. She took pictures on her phone of everything in its normal (operating) condition so she could turn it back on when she flies back in February to do tax work. I showed her where the small gas shutoff valve was located and she turned that off, cutting off gas to the fireplace, the kitchen range, and the outside grill quick-disconnect. Two of the computers still needed to install their updates. We did not want to wait for them to complete the process so I selected “Install updates and shut down.” Our second-to-last task was installing the glass storm door insert in the front door and storing the screen insert downstairs. Our last task was putting the cats onboard the bus.

One of the decisive moments in this departure process, albeit not at all dramatic, was locking the front door to the house for the last time in quite a while. Another was walking down our relatively new front stairs and sidewalk, which had made loading the coach a much more pleasant and safe endeavor, again for the last time in a while. Or perhaps it was finally turning the ignition key, such a small simple object, and bringing the large, powerful, and complex Detroit Diesel engine to life along with the rest of the coach. Or maybe it was pulling up the tag axle in preparation for the tight 180 degree turn we had to make to get out of our pull-through driveway and onto our street headed in the right direction. But the final, decisive moment, was putting the transmission into 1st gear, releasing the parking brake, touching the accelerator, finally moving the great beast of a bus forward, the first inches of a round trip that will likely cover at least 5,000 miles. We noted the time of our departure at 10:52 AM EDT, marking the end of preparation and the beginning of travel.

We turned off of our street onto Hacker Road which, we learned from Saturday’s mail, is finally going to be paved from Golf Club north to M-59. Hacker is the eastern boundary of our township and the western boundary of the township to the east and the two townships are apparently going to split the cost of the project equally. This was welcomed news for us as it will reduce the amount of dirt road we have to deal with to just our street.

Our first destination was Twelve Mile, Indiana where the bus has been since late September. We took my preferred route, following M-59 west to I-96 west to I-69 south into Indiana where we picked up US-20 westbound. I really like this stretch of US-20; there are very few stops or places we have to slow down, the road surface is in excellent condition, and the last 20 miles before US-31 is a multi-lane divided limited access freeway. We exited US-20 just south of South Bend, Indiana onto southbound US-31. This was the first time Linda has been on the new section of US-31. We passed SR-16 (IN) and drove another six miles to Gallahan’s Truck Stop and topped off the fuel tank. Based on the mileage on the new odometer our fuel economy computed as 4.9 mpg. I had topped off the tank this past Sunday but I had also been running the Aqua-Hot. Still, we were expecting more like 5.9 MPG, which is 20% better.

We back-tracked north on US-31 to SR-16 west and arrived in Twelve Mile just after 4 PM. I pulled into the U-shaped driveway that services the grain elevator across the street from Butch and Fonda’s place, parked the coach, and shut off the engine. We grabbed our rain coats and went in search of Butch and Fonda. We found them in the parts room working on insulating their well pump, pressure tank, filter, and lines. They had a dumpster sitting where I usually park our coach so Butch moved it inside the warehouse with his forklift. While Butch took care of that we unhooked our car and moved it out of the way. Linda then spotted for traffic and got me backed into our parking spot. We were positioned a little better for electrical power but still had to use our 50 Amp extension cord to reach the outlet. With temperatures dropping back below freezing tonight and Linda cooking our meals I wanted the full electrical hookup rather than the 30 Amp outlet by the automotive garage.

We visited briefly with Butch and Fonda but did not want to take them away from their work. Fonda and I gave Linda a tour of their bus, after which we retired to our own coach for the evening. Jasper had come out from under the front passenger seat as soon as we got parked. Juniper was much slower to emerge but finally did. Linda made seitan stroganoff for dinner, served over white rice (the way I like it) accompanied by a nice green salad and a glass of Moscato. We were very tired and went to bed at 8 PM, but it was nice to finally be back on the road together.

2014/06/28 (S) CSJ Leadership Installation

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We are all gathered for Marilyn’s installation ceremony as a member of Leadership Team and the Director for the St. Louis Province of the Congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph – Carondelet. The CSJs are an order of Roman Catholic nuns that originated in LePuy France in 1648 and came to the St. Louis, Missouri area in 1836 to set up a school for the deaf. The St. Louis Province is one of four that makes up the current Federation of CSJ’s in the U. S. The St. Louis Province has sisters in 18 states, South America and Africa.

The ceremony was today at 2 PM CDT at the Motherhouse in south St. Louis. It was both a celebration of the service rendered by the current leadership team over the last six years and a call to leadership of the new team. It was not a mass but it was certainly a religious ceremony, planned and executed by the Sisters in accordance with the principles and traditions of their order. I have posted pictures from the event in a separate Gallery post with today’s date.

There was a reception following the ceremony after which Marilyn gave us a tour of some “public” parts of the building, including her new office. By then it was time to head to the TreeHouse where we had a 5:00 PM dinner reservation for 10 people. Mike had to work today and was not able to attend the celebration or dinner, so we ended up with nine: Marilyn, Linda H., Ron and Mary, Clayton, Judy and her daughter Mary, and finally Linda and me. Judy is Marilyn, Ron, and Linda’s cousin. Marilyn had selected this restaurant for several reasons. For one, she and Linda were familiar with it as it is only a few miles from the two hospital complexes where they worked (Linda still does). It was also convenient to the CSJ – Carondelet Motherhouse. But mostly they selected it because it was a very good vegetarian restaurant with lots of vegan dishes and options.

We ordered the last four of the special salad of the day and shared them. The ingredients were very fresh and very tasty. Linda had the “beef bourguignon” stew and I had the “jambalaya” as did several other people. Both were made with seitan (a wheat gluten product) and both were excellent. The TreeHouse makes their own seitan and vegan cheeses. Since I was driving I had a Ginger Beer (non-alcoholic). It came out of a can, but it was also very good. For dessert Linda had a vegan cheesecake and I had a vegan ginger/pear crisp. Both of them were disappointing; definitely not on par with the salads and entrees. Those who had the chocolate desserts said they were excellent, although not quite as good as Linda’s chilled double-chocolate torte that she made Thursday evening and served after dinner on Friday.

After dinner we exchanged contact information with Judy, Mary, and Clayton, said our farewells, and drove back to Linda and Marilyn’s house. We relaxed and chatted until the effect of the long wonderful day finally settled in. We said our good nights and farewells with Ron, Mary, and Linda before they drifted off to bed as we would likely be gone in the morning before they arose.

2014/05/29 (R) 43

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Today was our 43rd wedding anniversary, and it was a beautiful day for it with blue skies, few if any clouds, nice temperatures, and a faint breeze. While we were eating breakfast Linda spotted what she thought was a female wild turkey in the back yard. Binoculars revealed it to be a male Mongolian Ring-Necked Pheasant, the first one we have seen here. A pair of robins have a nest under our deck and we have been watching them come and go. We had a rabbit on our front porch this evening that was intent on picking something out of the sisal fiber door mat. It kept the cats transfixed for a very long time as they sat stone still and watched it from less than three feet away through a window next to the door, never revealing their presence. The hunting instincts of domestic cats are still very powerful.

We took it easy yesterday and the day before as were both still recovering from being ill. We were both finally feeling enough better, however, to get a decent night’s sleep and spend enough time at our desks during the day and get some things done. I also had a nice chat with my sister and filled her in on our plans to visit St. Louis in late June.

Keith came over and cut our neighbor’s grass (5 acre lot) and then cut ours (another 5 acre lot). The boundary line between our two lots is a long low swale that drains towards the pond to our east, sort of. It has marsh grass in some low spots and Keith managed to get his zero-turn mower stuck in the soft ground near one of them. Neither of us had a tow rope, strap, cable, or chain but I found some scrap 10-3 + ground electrical cable. I added some “fresh” gasoline to our lawn tractor tank (it had been in a full, air-tight can with fuel stabilizer for the last year), checked the oil, put a battery charger on the tractor battery, and managed to get it started. The electrical cable was long enough (20+ feet) that I was able to keep my lawn tractor out of the really soft soil. A little bit to my surprise the lawn tractor and electrical cable were up to the task and able to pull the zero-turn free. I was thinking of getting rid of the lawn tractor but perhaps I will keep it. Not to cut grass, but to haul around a small utility/garden trailer for moving mulch and other garden and small landscaping materials. I may just remove the mower deck as it does not work well anyway.

Yesterday I spent a good part of the afternoon and some of the evening writing an article for our FMCA GLCC newsletter on the recent Escapade rally. After Linda proof-read it I selected 10 photos I had used in blog posts about the event, inserted them at the end of the article, provided captions, packaged everything in a Dropbox folder, and got an e-mail off to the newsletter editors with the Dropbox link and editorial instructions.

Butch (and Fonda) called yesterday evening to wish us a happy anniversary because they thought our anniversary was the same day as theirs. It’s not; they have been married one day longer than we have.

Gary was scheduled to come over yesterday morning to discuss our pole barn project but it was raining heavily at the time, and was forecast to rain most of the day, so we rescheduled for Friday afternoon. Village Landscape was tentatively scheduled to start work today on our front entrance sidewalk/stairs and rear retaining walls. I knew that wasn’t guaranteed as they were still finishing up projects that fell behind because of how wet May has been. Once it started raining hard I knew I would not see them today and probably not this week. If they cannot start soon we may have to put them off until next month after GLAMARAMA.

Mike (W8XH) came over this morning to help us with some Windows 8/8.1 issues. We had a problem this winter in the bus where Linda was not able to connect her Windows 8 Samsung to our NAS device via a WiFi connection to our network. She has had the same problem when connecting wirelessly to our network at home. Mike suspected that it had to do with the workgroup name settings and/or the Win 8/8.1 “home group” settings. He took care of Linda’s Samsung laptop first and that turned out to be the case. She left to get her hair cut and we turned our attention to my new ASUS laptop. By the time we finished we had all of the issues on my list resolved and some good thoughts about how to approach a few other things. We discussed the SLAARC WP website development and made a few decisions about when/how we want to unveil it and what functionality needs to be in place by that time.

In the past we would normally go out for dinner on our anniversary but decided to dine in tonight. Linda made amazing pasta and lentils dish with salsa and walnuts. I know, it sounds crazy, but it was soooo good. It was one of the top 10 recipes for 2011 from the OhSheGlows website. She also made a refrigerated vegan double-chocolate torte dessert thingy. It was almost too good to eat, but we managed to each have a piece. 🙂

2014/01/02 (R) Rainy Days And Chores

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As I have written here before, full- and extended-time RVing is not the same as being on vacation. For one, we have the same housekeeping chores that we would have at home and rainy days are good days for doing inside chores. We have enough clothing with us to last about 10 days and had not done the laundry in over a week, so today was laundry day. Our site (439) is a short walk to the laundry room in the old/south section of the Williston Crossings RV Resort. (Old means that it was here before the new/north section was built. The old section is very nice with mature landscaping and facilities that are in excellent condition.)

When I checked my e-mail yesterday I had one from Donna Bartolomeo. Donna and Michael are members of our FMCA Freethinkers chapter and fellow vegans. They also arrived at Williston Crossings yesterday and will be here for a week. By mid-afternoon the rain had let up so we went for a walk in the general direction of their site (245) and found them just as they were heading out for a bicycle ride. We chatted for a few minutes and invited them to dinner, which they accepted.

They came over to our coach at 6 PM and brought a bottle of wine. Linda prepared a nice green salad and made her mushroom kale barley risotto with garlic and shallots. As with all of the other members of our chapter that we have had the pleasure to meet, we had a long, easy, comfortable conversation. During the course of that conversation we found out that they have a home near St. Petersburg, Florida but had specifically booked this week at Williston Crossings back in October because we had announced that we would be here starting January 1^st! They invited us back to their motorhome for dinner sometime while they are here and I know we will spend more time in conversation with them before they leave.

A cold front has been pushing this way and the rain was forecast to end overnight with the low temperature dropping to 35 degrees F. It looks like we will have a couple of days with mid-30s low temps and then a couple of days early next week with lows in the upper 20s but we knew that this part of Florida occasionally sees those kinds of temperatures in January, and we are prepared for them.

2013_09_13 (Fri) Bakery Business, WordPress, And Gutters

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Linda left early to drive to the bakery where she put in a long day. I worked on the CEPI ATR project for a while in the morning. The mail came around noon and contained the written proposal package for the bus barn from Morton Buildings. We also received a box from Bus Conversions Magazine containing multiple copies of the issues in which I have had articles published this year (Feb, Mar, May, and July). We have been distributing sample copies to potential subscribers as we travel to try and help the magazine build its subscriber base.

At 1 PM I met with Mike (W8XH) from SLAARC to work on a new website prototype using WordPress. On Monday we had been unable to complete the installation of WordPress at Larry’s for lack of the necessary login information, but Mike had obtained that from another club member during the week. Finishing the installation was more complicated than we anticipated and we ended up on the phone with Larry (K8UT) most of the time. Our original goal was to investigate themes and plugins but we worked on installation and configuration instead, including figuring out how to set up subdomains through GoDaddy; first things first, after all.

By mid-late afternoon I was back home, the weather was pleasant, and I finally had time to investigate the gutters. It came as no surprise that the downspouts were all completely clogged. What did surprise me was the amount of fine gravel in the gutters. This was material that had washed loose from the surface of the shingles over time and accumulated along the bottom of the gutters to a depth of 1/4 to 1/2 inch in places. I got out the 8 foot step ladder and the long hose and spray head, switched the outside faucets to direct well water (unfiltered and untreated) and spent a couple of hours on the roof hosing out the gutters and downspouts.

This was only the second time I had been on the roof, and the first time I had inspected the entire surface. The inspector had dubbed the roof “serviceable” during the purchase inspection, meaning that it probably did not need to be replaced immediately. My assessment was “marginally serviceable”, meaning that it will probably have to be re-shingled next summer. It is a relatively low pitch roof, roughly 4-in-12, so I may redo it myself. I’ve done this work before, and although I was much younger then, I am actually in better shape now. The key will be getting the shingles delivered to the roof rather that to the driveway. The bonus to being on the roof was that the views were nice and I had a much better Verizon 4G/LTE signal than I do in the house, so there is still the possibility that I can get a usable signal into the house using some sort of signal booster system.

By the time Linda fought her way home through Friday evening rush hour traffic she was tired and did not feel like cooking. It was also obvious that we would not be ready to leave for Twelve Mile, Indiana by noon the next day. We quickly decided to delay our departure until Sunday and, relieved of that pressure, headed off to LaMarsa in Brighton for dinner. The LaMarsa in Farmington Hills was a favorite of ours before we moved, and the one in Brighton is equally good. Our favorite dish is Koshary, an Egyptian street food made with rice, legumes, two different pastas, fried onions, pickled beets, and a spicy sauce. It comes with a salad with a lovely Middle Eastern vinaigrette dressing. Dinner always comes with fresh pocket pita breads and garlic spread and the whole meal is vegan, served in a nice setting by wonderful wait staff.

2013_08_16 (Fri) BTTB Rally – Day 2

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We had another cool night overnight that was great for sleeping. 7:30 AM found the coffee brewed and the bagels, fruit, muffins, and Danish pastries awaiting the rally participants. This isn’t a “fancy” rally in a fancy place, but it sure is a nice one.

Mike Mullen’s Flxible (on right), the only one at this rally.

Two more buses showed up today; Mike (GLCC vice-president) & Mary Ann Muller and Mark (CCO president) & Diane Reid. Linda took off with a group of the women to search out garage sales, but came back empty-handed. (She is not a garage sale person.) Over the course of the morning bay doors were opened on various buses and small groups of (mostly) men could be found peering deep inside. These sessions are sometimes for the purpose of seeing/admiring someone’s latest handiwork, and sometimes for the purpose of trying to help diagnose a problem and fix it if possible. There was some of both today. On Wednesday, for instance, someone blew a transmission hose just as they were pulling into their parking space. With the help of some of the other participants, a new hose had been custom made by a local supplier and installed, tested, and verified as operational in less than 24 hours. Today several guys worked on diagnosing a severe vibration problem someone in the rear of a GM 4104.

Bill Gerry’s Harley Davidson with Leyman trike conversion. Bill is in the center of the photo, directly behind the bike (dressed in black, of course).

Mid-late morning Bill Gerry showed up on his Harley Davidson Leyman trike conversion. He left the Toronto, Ontario area around 6:00 AM for the 4.5 hour trip plus several fuel stops. As you can see in the picture, it’s a gorgeous machine. Bill is the de facto “ring leader” of the Canadian contingent that usually attends this rally, but he and Karen could not come this year because of a 50th wedding anniversary party being held tomorrow for some of their best friends back home. (Karen stayed home to help with the preparations.) Still, I think it says a lot that Bill thought it was worth driving 9 hours round trip to hang out with all of us for a few hours. Such is the attraction of the bus conversion community, and the camaraderie of those who choose to be part of it. As mentioned yesterday, Dennis and Bernadette did make it to the rally in their Class B, so our Canadian friends were represented.

Late morning conversations in the pavilion.

Everyone was on their own for lunch today, so Linda and I had some sun-dried tomato hummus wraps with onions, lots of onions. Because we knew we would only have a 20A connection, Linda planned the meals we would have to provide for ourselves around not having to cook things. With the way we eat, however, “no heat don’t mean no eat.” It was a bit warmer by lunchtime than the last few days, and the cold dishes were particularly satisfying under such weather conditions.

Since most of the rally participants were now on site, I decided to bring out the copies of the February 2013 issue of Bus Conversion Magazine and the May-June issue of The Gypsy Journal to distribute to those who don’t already subscribe to them. We left home in early June with about 60 copies of the BCM issue and picked up about 100 copies of TGJ in Gillette, Wyoming. We have been carrying them with us every since and passing them out at campgrounds and rallies. After today’s distribution we have less than 10 of each left.

Almost everyone was present for the roundtable discussion, which lasted two hours.

At 1:00 PM (Ed time) we circled up the chairs for our roundtable discussion. This has been a regular Friday feature of the rally since it began. We had 20+ people in the circle, 30 total in the pavilion, and almost everyone participated. Someone was having a problem with a 2-year old leather chair that was peeling, and the group helped problem-solve how to deal with the vendor, who was being very reluctant to make good on the situation. We ended up on speaker phone with them, and made it clear that 30 of us were listening to the conversation. By the end there seemed to be a greater willingness on the part of the vendor to try to make the situation right.

Other topics of discussion included electrical shorepower and how to build/use a combiner box to plug a “50A” connector into two smaller capacity outlets (30A, 20/15A). Some of us indicated that we also carry long, larger gauge extension cords with 50A RV/marine twist lock connectors that have the L1 and L2 pins internally jumpered. There’s no magic to this—20A is 20A—but it does allow power to be applied to both legs of the coach’s electrical system so that everything onboard is able to receive electrical power (except for any 240VAC devices). That doesn’t mean you can run everything; 20A is still just 20A after all.

We had an extended discussion about supplemental braking systems. While everyone present indicated that they use one, there were several different types represented, and questions about each of their methods of operation, and opinions about their relative merits. Like any other vehicle, buses have brake systems designed to safely stop their GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating). This is the maximum amount of weight the bus is designed to move and stop, including anything it is towing. Most states and provinces require supplemental braking for anything being towed that weighs over a certain amount, with 1,500 pounds being a common specification. A major consideration is break away situations, in which the toad breaks loose from the bus. Many supplemental braking systems are designed to apply the car brakes hard and keep them applied in this situation.

Several discussants had issues with their pneumatic systems so those were put forward and discussed. At lot of things on buses operate on air, including suspensions, brakes, accessories, and even engine throttles. The universal reality about air systems seems to be that they leak, so the issue is never IF, but HOW BAD? Many air leaks are small enough that you can live with them, but not always.

The subject of Coach-Net came up. Many FMCA motorhome owners have Coach-Net emergency roadside service policies. What the policies cover is actually fairly limited, but does include towing (a huge benefit for a bus or large motorhome owner), fuel (if you run out), and telephone technical support. If you need a roadside repair they will try to get the right person to your location to do it, but the cost of the repair is not covered. Several of our GLCC members had recently had their service canceled, in spite of not having made any claims. The reason they were given was that Coach-Net had changed their policy and would no longer cover buses (specifically?) that were more than 40 years old. Pat indicated that he had talked to Jon Walker, a member of GLCC and the recently elected FMCA National Vice President, and that the contract between FMCA and Coach-Net had ended as of July 1 and not been renewed. The rally participants who were affected by this had no problem signing up for Good Sam Emergency Road Service.

There was a question about solar panels (photovoltaic). The question generated a lot of comment, but no definitive recommendations. It was a systems sizing question that was simple to ask, but not simple to answer without specific analysis and calculations. Finally, several rally goers reported on recent, successful service experiences and gave positive recommendations for the service providers.

After the roundtable ended around 3 PM Bill said his farewells and left for Toronto. Folks returned to their coaches, resumed their conversation groups, and returned to their “bay watch” patrols and repair work.

L-to-R Gordy, Marty, and Glenn cooking up the burgers and hotdogs for dinner.

Dinner this evening was classic summer fare; grilled hotdogs and hamburgers with the fixins’, potato salad, baked beans, and potato chips. Some raw veggies were left over from the other night as well. We supplied our own tofu hotdogs, which Glenn grilled up for us very nicely. We garnished them with fresh raw onions and mustard. Potato chips and raw veggies rounded out our meals, which, while not exactly whole-food, plant-based, were definitely vegan.

Prepping the buffet line. There were a few young folks at the rally, although not as many as in past years.

Not long after dinner Bill Foley stopped by. Bill is a CCO guy who lives nearby but was not able to attend the rally with his bus. Bill has a bus barn that Don has been trying to arrange for some of us to go see. I ended up at Ed’s coach and had a long chat with Ed, Bill, and Don. We discussed bus barns, but we also talked about the situation with our driveway at some length.

I eventually returned to our coach to sound of the nearby race track. We have heard these vehicles at various times most days, presumably making practice runs, but we assumed tonight were actual races. Some of the rally participants started playing bingo in the pavilion around 9 PM. They were done by 10:15 PM, after which conversation continued along with the racing. RVers, or at least the ones we hang out with, tend to be up early and turn in early. This particularly rally, however, tends to keep folks up a bit later, especially on Friday and Saturday evenings. We are gathered out in the country, not in a commercial campground or state park, so we have only our fellow rally participants to answer to, and no one objects to conversations extending into the evening. Eventually the rally site quieted down and the only thing that disturbed the nighttime silence was an occasional train. (For those who don’t know, it is a requirement that wherever two or more RVs are gathered, there must be an active rail line nearby. If there isn’t, I think there are special crews that get dispatched in the middle of the night to quickly build one.)

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Tag Archives: vegan

2015/11/28 (S) Berea to Cartersville

2015/11/15 (N) Tiling the Cockpit, #2

2015/09/14 (M) Final Prep (for now)

2015/08/24 (M) Skimcoating

2015/08/22 (S) Clean and Level

2015/08/20 (R) On The Level

2015/08/15 (S) Steve and Karen

2015/07/19 (N) Another Buddy Visit

2015/07/15 (W) Prime Wednesday

2015/06/27 (S) ARRL Field Day

2014/12/17-20 (W-S) Second Winter Birthday

2014/06/28 (S) CSJ Leadership Installation

2014/01/02 (R) Rainy Days And Chores

2013_09_13 (Fri) Bakery Business, WordPress, And Gutters

2013_08_16 (Fri) BTTB Rally – Day 2