a dog house on wheels

Postcard from Arizona- 7

2011-12-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

27 December 2011

The Furnace Problem That Wasn't

It's been getting cold at night (20s F), but the furnace has always worked well down to at least that temp when we set the thermostat to 62 F. Sometime after we arrived, however, the furnace stopped getting as hot as it should. It would run and run, and often the burner would cut off shortly after lighting. The fan was blowing air that was sometimes barely warmer than the outside temp and at best it was body temp. Clearly something was wrong somewhere in the furnace system, but the repair folks were all out of town for the year end holidays. Then we got lucky when...

Celia asked around among others in her line dance class and got the name of a mobile repair guy that's new to the Benson area. One person had had occasion to call him and he'd treated them fairly and done a good job. So we called Wayne Tedford (928-242-9123) and asked for help. He apologized that he wouldn't be able to get over right away... would 2 hours be OK? Huh?! In my mind 2-hours is pretty darn close to instantaneous!

Wayne had the right equipment to check the pressure of our propane line and, happily, that was the problem. Why happily? Cuz pressure that's too low is probably caused by a bad regulator and, at least in our case, a regulator is easy to replace. Plus, as RV parts go, propane regulators are cheap. We have an RV parts store 1.5 mi. down the road (Cates-Hill on AZ-80), so he was back in 30 minutes with a work-alike part that fit the space. Now we have a new cross-over regulator from the same mfr. (Marshall). The story was that the model regulator delivered with our Montana had a high failure rate. The replacement regulator has been on the market longer and is touted as being reliable. We'll see. Plus it's possibly the last 250,000 BTU crossover around as regulator mfrs have stopped making anything that big for an RV (seems odd considering all the high-end rigs available these days).

The big surprise was when Wayne removed the old regulator and oil started dripping out of the low pressure hose. Yikes!! Turns out this is a common occurrence and almost always shows up on the low-pressure side of the regulator. I asked where the oil came from and Wayne asked which version of the story I wanted to hear. Apparently the experts don't agree: could be propane turning back into oil; or leaking seals on the supply pump; or a certain chemical (sorry... forgot the name) which is added to propane for odor; or a combination of these guesses. Whatever the cause, you really don't want to get any of that nasty oil stuff in your mouth like I did while trying to blow the excess out of the hose. Uugh! 1/2 hour after I set the old regulator on top of the power pylon it was still oozing oil. I can't help but wonder if that was what killed the regulator but have no idea.

Merry Christmas

We managed to get past the holiday, but not without falling off the diet-wagon. A couple of chocolate Santas (each), a bunch of cherry cordials, a chocolate orange (each), packages of various chocolate candies, and more. After all that we were ready to say "Enough!"

As planned, we did manage to avoid the big 2-day Christmas feed at the club house by going out to eat. We'd planned on Golden Corral in Sierra Vista (buffet style restaurant) but they closed for Christmas day. It seems like any question you might have has answers at Celia's dance class, so once again Celia asked and, sure enough, she got an answer, this time from Alaska Linda. 3 places were open this Christmas: Denny's in Benson, Omar's Truck Stop (dunno where they are but they're supposed to have really good chicken fried steak) and the Triangle-T Dude Ranch in Dragoon. Armed with Celia's info, friends Mike & Susan did all the arranging and I volunteered to haul 5 of us in our truck. There were 10 of us all together and we had a great roast beef dinner with all the trimmings but gravy (the Admiral says that's good but I disagree!). And we had 3 choices of pie (the Admiral says that's bad but I disagree!). And they provided live entertainment. Raleigh Jay sang and accompanied himself on guitar... we enjoyed his singing very much. Unfortunately for Alaska Linda and her party, they arrived too early for the roast beef and had ham steaks instead. They weren't impressed.

It's getting warmer

The NWS says it's getting warmer this week. Supposed to get into the 70s during the day by Wednesday. Hope that's true. We've seen mostly high 40s or low 50s for the last couple weeks as the jet stream has drooped down near our latitude. Night time temps are the biggest concern: we've seen 20F every nite for the last 5 nights. Generally speaking, NWS predictions suck for San Pedro Valley evening temps... we've been consistently 10 or more degrees colder than forecast. Same thing happened last year, and local TV forecasts are worse.

Anyway, a general warming trend is welcome news and I may actually be able to put my down coat away for awhile. Annie & Kelly are perfectly happy with the colder temps, but I whine a lot!

Postcard from Arizona- 6

2011-12-16T12:40:00.002-07:00

15 December 2011

Christmas is getting close. I can tell cuz the Christmas lights have already fallen down 2 times and the big bow on the front has fallen 3 times. Made us feel pretty festive. So when friends Mike & Susan invited us to go with them to see the Christmas lights in Tucson we jumped on the opportunity.

It's pretty easy to do. There's a street in Winterhaven area of Tucson named Christmas Ave. Property owners there go all out decorating their yards, trees, houses, cars or anything else that stays put for a few hours in the evening. I guess when you live on a street with a name like that you have no choice. Even those in the neighborhood who don't celebrate Christmas join in. Like the house with the makeshift minora made from plastic pipe; and another with a giant dreidel.

Mike did his homework and got us there quickly: I-10 to Exit 255. N on Miracle Mile (past the NoTell Motel... seriously!) to Oracle, 2 blocks left to Ft. Lowell, then down Ft Lowell to Christmas Ave. He even found a map of the neighborhood that showed the proper route to drive through the neighborhood. It needs to be organized cuz there are a lot of cars! Tucson police control all vehicle access and each of the entry points is lighted with emergency lighting. There are only 3 nights when cars are permitted into the area, otherwise you have to make it by foot. There's an entry fee: as many canned goods as you can afford. The only problem I saw is that pedestrians are permitted onto the same streets as the cars, so it can get a little scarey and we needed to stay alert.

Trying to get photos turned out to be a challenge... night shots from a moving car are if-y at best. So, if you'll pardon the fuzziness, here's our memory shots:

Straight from an animated movie...

Dunno how I managed this one!

LOTS of cars!

Not sure... an Arizona igloo?

Anybody wanna play Angry Birds?!

Not terribly inventive, but it was better lit than a shopping mall.

Even this Jeep got a layer of lights!

Mike looking pretty grim: "Where's the bathroom?!"

Yep... a dreidel

Traditional southwestern motif

Couldn't miss this with lights banging on/off.

Postcard from Arizona- 5

2011-12-12T13:27:00.002-07:00

12 December 2011

Warranty Truck-Repairs

Yesterday we were finally able to take the truck for a proper Sunday drive... our first since Lawley Ford in Sierra Vista completed warranty repairs. During an earlier visit they updated the firmware and this time they replaced the high pressure fuel pump (plus a couple other things). They also discovered there's a problem with our Banks 6-Gun Tuner and had to leave it disconnected. So this drive was to see if things really were running right and that there wasn't something that went wonky after sitting for a week or so.

I'm happy to say the truck runs great! What's more, the firmware update seems to have improved our fuel economy. Halleluiah! What an improvement. When we pulled out of our campsite our on-board mileage computer said 16.8 mpg. By the time we got back after 106 miles driving (including 1,500' elevation change), the mileage was over 18 mpg. Granted we haven't seen what happens with a real load pulling our trailer, but there is certainly an improvement running solo.

The best mileage we ever saw after installing the Banks tuner was just over 17 mpg running solo. So repairing and reinstalling the Banks tuner would mean we would have to settle for poorer fuel economy... we're not gonna' go there. So I think we'll pass on rushing to get the tuner (harness?) repaired.

I have to believe that the other (non-tuner) Banks mods, i.e. the air cleaner + DPF-back exhaust system + inter-cooler, are probably part of the reason the mileage has improved compared to stock. Knowing what I know today, I'd probably pass on installing the expensive Banks 6-Gun tuner + iQ display since we aren't interested in more power without improving fuel economy. Today I'd choose just the mechanical mods.

Looking Good!

Our Montana has a rubber roof. Sort of. Montana covers the plywood roof with a thin rubber membrane. That rubber film does a good job keeping the roof water-tight and it can survive for many years with some care. But the rubber film will die in the sun unless it's treated regularly. Montana says it should have a treatment every year to provide UV protection. Kinda like sunscreen for the roof.

Our winter-neighbor here in Benson has his New Horizon travel trailer washed & waxed every year by a local named Hooper. His rates are very reasonable and, for a small extra charge, he'll use a special washing product which protects the rubber film. Our neighbor's trailer always looks really nice, so we asked Hooper to do our Montana and to use the special rubber protectant.

It took Hooper quite awhile since he got delayed by wind and weather, but he finished a few days ago and what an improvement! I'd forgotten how much shinier the rig was when we first took delivery. Now it looks even better because the polymer-based wax (?) he uses has filled those microscopic scratches that buffing leaves behind. Now the rig fairly glistens in the sun and finally the decals have some protection too. At $5.50/foot + $25 for the special rubber protectant, we think it was a bargain.

We were a little disappointed to discover there was already some damage to the decals, though. We really needed to have done this last year. Now we have at least one location on the nose fairing where a decal is starting to curl (it hadn't had any protection applied at the dealer). Plus there are a few places where rocks or bugs have nicked the decals and the white shows through. And these decals are supposedly the tougher variety that Montana uses now.

Rainy day

This is a la niña year and that means extra snow in Santa Fe. And apparently rain in Benson. Like Santa Fe, Benson had an essentially dry monsoon season. But now we're sitting in our Montana watching everything get a good drink. There's already been 0.3" of slow steady rain. Not exactly what a person thinks of here in the desert, but an interesting change that is supposed to go on for a few days.

Postcard from Arizona- 4

2011-11-29T11:01:00.001-07:00

29 November 2011

Looks like Lawley Ford in Sierra Vista is going to get very, very high marks once the truck is back in our hands. I received a call this morning and learned that they were in the process of replacing the high pressure fuel pump on our truck. That fits with information I've read on the 'net about failure code P120F so I have high expectations that they have it right. Yee haw!

I got the call at about 8:30 this morning and they were already working on the truck. The first step is to lift the body off the truck so they can access the pump... I wonder what genius thought that was an OK way of doing this replacement?! Even with that huge extra step, it appears they should finish in one day. This repair will be done under warranty except for anything they have to move out of the way that is related to our Banks equipment. The estimate is somewhere around 2 hours of labor... about $250. I see it as penance for having installed the Banks equipment, but $250 is a huge difference from paying the whole $2,500 that it would cost if the warranty didn't cover the work.

I had been stewing about this for all the weeks since the pump started failing. Needless to say, this is a huge weight off my psyche. If all goes as planned we'll be RVers again by tonight (without a truck we're just campers!) and we'll be raving about what a great dealer Lawley Ford is! :)

Postcard from Arizona- 3

2011-11-22T22:22:00.001-07:00

23 November 2011

Internet

We've spent way too much time fussing with internet access including activating the 3G network on our iPads. The iPads are fine for many things, but it's just not a direct substitute for our laptops. During those times we're in Benson, we've acquiesced and are using the $30/mo WiFi service available to the park. It's provided by a local company and signup is online via credit card for a day, a week, a month, or 6 months. No router permitted and you're able to have unlimited internet access except they measure bandwidth and cut you off if they think you're abusing their service. Hmmm... unlimited access but you can't use it excessively? I'll have to think about that.

Sick Truck

I said earlier we have a problem with our Ford F-350 truck. The day we arrived in Benson it started running rough (feels like a misfire). Now it has greatly reduced power. Just to eliminate one possibility I wanted to remove the Banks tuner module in order to satisfy myself it wasn't the culprit. In the process of unwinding the Banks-installed equipment I found the engine wiring harness is missing the back-shell, perhaps broken a long time ago, or possibly broken at Banks when they did the install. Dunno. But that back-shell is important for more than being a dust cover: it contains the cam surfaces needed to disconnect the engine wiring harness. I feared I would probably break the connector if I tried to pry it off so I put it in the too-hard-to-do pile and looked for help.

It was clear we needed to get someone involved with the right tools and the know-how to troubleshoot the engine and do the repair. I asked around and was warned away from the local (Benson) Ford dealer. But I wasn't finding a reasonable alternative till Celia asked someone in her line dance class. They have a Freightliner and recommended the repair place they use in Willcox (30+ miles East). Unfortunately they turned out to have repair capability for only small trucks. Anything newer than a 2002 Ford exceeds what their test equipment can interpret (there are a lot of the older 7.3 Liter Ford trucks out there accumulating hundreds of thousands of miles each). We ended up calling the Ford dealer in Sierra Vista (30+ miles SW). It's also a Lawley Ford dealer (same name as the dealer in Benson) and have a good reputation. And they didn't seem to have an issue with having Banks equipment installed. So we dropped it off last Saturday.

When I picked it up Tuesday it ran perfectly... for about 15 miles. Then the same nasty P120F fault code raised its ugly head again. The tech found a problem with a Banks connector, plus they did the update & re-calibration of the PCM (a firmware change done as a recall; I'd put this off for several months). They were sure it was fixed and as I drove away I was equally convinced. Sadly it needed to go back and we did that today, the Wednesday before Turkey Day. From what I've been able to read on the internet, P120F doesn't go away permanently till you replace the high pressure fuel pump, but that seems to be a step Ford is reluctant to take as part of warranty repairs. So we'll have to see what happens next.

Holidays

Last year we got into some bad eating habits during our stay in Benson. To the tune of almost 20 lbs. for me by the end of summer. We had way too many meals out with fried food and big desserts, then we continued to eat that way once we left Benson. We hope to not repeat that experience this year and will pass on the big Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners they have here.(and Taco Night and Fish Fry Night and the Dessert Auction... sigh).

To get things going in the right direction we've started eating according to the Admiral's favorite eating program: Weight Watchers. If we do everything right we can expect about 1 lb/wk weight loss and that's what's been happening. It's a good start and we don't want to get derailed with the large-group eat frenzy that goes on here during the winter. So instead of the big dinners at the Club House and the Leftovers Dinner the next day, we'll be going to a restaurant instead. No doubt we'll go over the daily limit, but we'll be back on track the next day without the temptation of great tasting leftovers.

Anyway, hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. And wish us enough luck to see the San Francisco game on Thursday. Go Niners!

An Experiment

2011-11-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

5 November 2011

We're struggling with connectivity. When we arrived in AZ we suddenly started getting billed for data at a rate 3-4 times what we've had for the last nearly 2 years. We tried a different Verizon air card to no avail, so that was returned and we closed that particular Verizon line (one of 3). Sadly there's no way to tell anyone why we bailed out after 2 years of being happy customers. Sales apparently is tasked with blocking venomous vitriol from the unhappy masses.

We have unlimited data and messaging on our grandfathered-AllTel phones (recently upgraded to iPhones), but Verizon won't let us use the bandwidth as a personal hotspot to connect our laptops. Yes, it's physically possible to create the hotspot, but they block users from doing it themselves. Instead we have to change our plan which means we would lose our unlimited data/messaging which would be replaced with a 2 GB limit instead. Worse yet, we would lose our free roaming and free long distance on the phones.

So, after fighting it since early this year when we received our then new, hot-off-the-press iPad 2 tablets, we activated the 3G network for both of them. The cost is close to the same as the base rate of the air card data plan, there's no router required anymore since we operate separately, and bandwidth seems to accumulate accurately.

There are limitations using the iPad as the sole net access and maintaining this blog is only one. For instance I have to move photos from the laptop or camera onto the iPad. Can't use Picasa or Flickr as this would accumulate large bandwidth usage. And my first try using Google's Blogger to create a post from PHX airport exposed the complete inadequacy of that piece of Google software. What looks like a proper post in Blogger turns into a run-on sentence. And there's no means of controlling style beyond the template, e.g. no font controls like underscore, bold, etc. Looks like I need another editor, so...

This is my $3 experiment using BlogPress as an iPad app. BlogPress is a WordPress product my son suggested a year ago. At this point I've stumbled my way thru getting a post created, but so far I haven't discovered how to access previously published posts with BlogPress nor how to publish. And I don't know what a post looks like once it gets to the server. So the jury is still out.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Tamarisk Ln, Benson, AZ

Postcard from the road

2011-10-17T08:30:00.001-07:00

17 October 2011

I'm stuck in PHX waiting for US Airways to clone an aircraft. Oh joy. I'm bored out of my mind so I thought I'd whine.

I'm on my way to Albuquerque for regular doctor & dentist appointments and, more importantly, to retrieve our Highlander. The truck is sick and we rented a car from Enterprise which we'll return when I get the Highlander back to Benson. The KIA Soul was a nice car, but we'd have liked it better if the suspension had springs with more than 4" of travel and mileage better than about 30 mpg. Guess it's not for old toots like us.

The airport delay doesn't threaten tomorrow's appointments, but it does mean I have to reschedule the shuttle. Bummer. I'm assuming all will go OK... this is my first time to use Sandia Shuttle Express. They don't take you to your home, but they stop at all the Roadrunner stops and there's one near the house. A 1 mile walk after sitting for way too many hours sounds just fine.

What a pain not having the truck! We'd planned to drive from Benson to Santa Fe so we both could have our teeth cleaned. Without the truck, we couldn't both fly because one of us had to stay with the dogs. Since the Admiral can't drive more than 30 minutes without falling asleep, that meant I was a better choice to fly, then drive back to Benson. Not bad duty since I enjoy driving anyway.

19 October 2011

The Sandia Shuttle Express turned out to be a great choice: $27 from the Sunport (ABQ) to the Railrunner South Capitol station in Santa Fe. I could have chosen any of several non-neighborhood drop off locations.

Been to the doctor (good for another 6 months) and to the dental hygienist today (yup... still got all 8 of 'em). Barbara has been cleaning my teeth for a few years now and we always take a few minutes to talk about photography. She's a really good photographer who has recently started doing weddings. She has a few prints hanging around the office. I especially liked the shot off the back of the Amtrak... Wow!

I was out of the chair at 1500 and on the road headed South on I-25. Stopped in Socorro for the nite, and tomorrow will take NM-26 from Hatch to Deming in order to bypass Las Cruces.

20 October 2011

I was awake at 0430 so I thought "What the hell? Might as well get going." I was on the road by 0500 and had an easy time getting to Deming on I-10 with nearly no traffic. Stopped in Lordsburg for gas and breakfast (Kranberry's... excellent fresh biscuits, but to my mind sausage gravy is supposed to have some sausage in it; still tasted good), then back on the road. I was at the Dog House by 10ish thanks to the time zone difference (AZ doesn't use daylight savings time). I was starting to fade as I got near Texas Canyon about 20 East of Benson, but the boulder-strewn landscape near the top of the pass is gorgeous and I was quickly alert again to finish the ride.

Tomorrow the KIA goes back. And it was a good thing we rented it. Not only did Celia use it to get me to the Tucson airport (TUS), she had to get Annie to the emergency vet in Tucson at 0100 on the 19th. The Admiral was afraid Annie might have bloat, a very real possibility with berners. It can only be corrected with surgery to remove the twist in the bowel. Turned out she had bad gas (Maalox with Simethicone did the trick), probably from the mesquite berries she sneaks while walking. The Admiral explained it was a $300 fart (cost of X-rays and exam), but better safe than sorry. With bloat you have about an hour to get to the vet for surgery or you'll lose your best friend.

iPad 2 and Google's Blogger editor

I started this post at the PHX airport using my iPad 2 and their WiFi hotspot. I could enter and save text to the blog OK, but it appears the Blogger editor is buggy in its iPad version. Everything was a continuous sentence with no line breaks, and it was like pulling eye teeth to get Blogger to edit what it had just saved. Disappointing. Come on Google... you can do better than that!. I've seen reference to an editor used by Blogspot bloggers traveling with their iPads and had thought it didn't apply to me. Oops! Guess I'd better track it down.

Postcard from Arizona- 2 *

2011-10-07T19:58:00.003-07:00

7 October 2011

Benson, AZ
Back in 1965 when I was working at UTC Div of United Aircraft (now Chemical Systems Div of United Technologies Corp), I worked with a guy named Jerry Yaezel. Jerry was a very calm individual who always kept his head and never said an angry word (are there still people like that?!). UTC built rocket motors and we tested samples at the Coyote, CA facility where I worked. Working with rocket motors, whether solid or liquid, there were always opportunities to get really, really, really excited. Like when a motor blew up (which happened with alarming regularity with experimental motors). Jerry kept his cool through all these things. The foreman in the test bay was Frank Reed and he was not put together with the same DNA as Jerry. Frank liked to tease Jerry and one day claimed he heard Jerry so upset he said "Hell, damn, poop!" Somehow I doubt that ever happened, but I never forgot the story and wondered if I could ever take things as calmly as Jerry always did. Well, yesterday, 46 years later, I had a hell-damn-poop moment.

Recall that we had the great bad-injector-debacle on Monday. Then a neighbor suggested it might be the air filter, so I had a go at cleaning it. I simply blew out the air filter with the compressor, then tried the truck. It ran OK, but the drive to Safeway was short and the truck never got up to operating temperature. I had significant reservations that things were really fixed, so yesterday I took the truck onto the I-10 and drove about 20 miles. Well... hell, damn, poop. The truck runs like a champ.

In the process of getting the filter out of the housing I managed to damaged the screening which covers the paper pleats. Now I have to get a replacement plus some of the spray-on cleaner and the oil (?) that's to be applied after cleaning (it attracts dust to improve cleaning). The filters are expensive ($200? more?) but it's a damn sight cheaper than having injectors replaced!

12 October

Benson, AZ
It's official... fussed with the antenna today and got it working OK, but only OK. But it was enought to log the first QSO (contact) with KZ7ZZ near Seattle, WA on 40m. Then I tuned up a little and listened to Roberto/I2VRN near Milan, Italy. Yikes! He created quite a jam with a bunch of retired hams who don't have to get up in the morning clamoring to be heard. You'd think it was a contest!

So I guess the antenna is going to be at least OK. Mrs. Bowman's little boy is grinning from ear-to-ear!

Postcard from Arizona

2011-10-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

5 October 2011

'The Eagle has landed', but not without falling on its ass. I'll explain...

Lordsburg, NM
We did a one-niter at KOA in Lordsburg, NM. Lordsburg is an easy stop and far enough on the South side of town that I-10 traffic isn't a problem. Weeeell... at least when you're as tired as we were. There's a Valero station 4 blocks away on the main drag that has diesel, so it was easy to get refueled. Lordsburg happens to be home to Kranberry's family restaurant, so, if you're food-deprived, you can have someone fill you with tasty food and fattening desserts for a nominal fee. Sadly the Admiral has us on a Weight Watchers program (thanks a lot, Dr. Oz!) and we abstained.

I fiddled with the power settings on the Banks controller all the way from Santa Fe to Socorro where I finally gave up. I settled on #3 (again!) and used that the rest of the way to Benson. To the uninitiated,10.6 mpg may sound awful (and it is!), but it's actually a significant improvement - about 18% on this trip - compared to what we got prior to having the Banks Engineering mods installed.

Interesting Garmin incident along the way: our Garmin 465T is optimized for commercial trucks and is aware of highways that have restrictions (weight, height, whatever). For whatever reason Mrs. Garmin decided that NM-26, the shortcut to Deming on I-10 from Hatch on I-25 which bypasses Las Cruces, is a no-no. We (and any number of very large commercial trucks) didn't agree, so we soldiered-on avoiding the extra 45 miles and heavy Las Cruces traffic... with Mrs. Garmin complaining the whole way.

Btw, we passed a huge solar farm between Hatch & Deming. I'm going to guess there were 32 panels in each array and each array was installed on its own 2-axis tracking mount (azimuth & elevation). There were maybe 24 mounts in the farm. Photos will have to wait for the next time we pass thru here (in a few days when we retrieve the car).

Benson, AZ
We arrived at SKP Saguaro at 1130 AM only to find the office closed. After grumping about how the staff had gone to lunch early, we finally realized "Oops! Today's Sunday!" October is still on a shortened schedule as leaseholders and JARs (JAR = Just A Renter... that's us) don't start arriving till the end of October.

Since we have an annual rental site, we went ahead and parked in our space. The dogs were in the truck while we set up and I left the engine idling so we could keep the AC running and keep them cool. We were interrupted by the across-the-street neighbor saying 'Hi!', then a few do-overs in setup, but eventually (45 minutes later?) we got things variously disconnected and connected and are settled in our site.

Electricity is expensive everywhere. Here at the SKP park it's $0.14/kW-hr, so (at current propane prices) it's cheaper to use propane whenever we can. I spent a lot of time last year tramping back and forth to Barnett's propane in Benson refilling our 7-gal tanks. This year we want to get a larger tank that is refilled monthly. That way we can use propane not only for the furnace but also for the fridge and the water heater. Off we went to Barnett's Sierra Vista office to sign the necessary paperwork for a 125-gal tank ($40/yr for the tank rental + cost of propane). About 2 miles into the 30+ mile trip I noticed what I thought might be a misfire in the diesel. And this is why I said the Eagle may have landed but it has fallen on its ass.

Truck-whine
The misfire feels a lot like what we experienced in Florida when an injector crapped out after the truck had idled for a very long time. On that earlier experience it was a simple case of shutting off the engine then restarting it (that failure turned out to be an intermittent electrical problem inside the injector). Not so lucky this time. The further we drove the worse the misfire got. Shutting down and restarting changed nothing The truck idles smoothly, but at any throttle setting above idle it is a distinct problem until it gets to full throttle where it seems to be smoother. I tried driving at higher speed for awhile, but with all the police watching for speeders during commute traffic it was hopeless. So now we need a local mechanic who can run diagnostics and do necessary repairs.

I asked at the office and got a couple suggestions for a mechanic to help us, then I also asked a neighbor about local mechanics. When he got home, Lorel asked her hubbie Gene what he thought and he immediately suggested our problem might be the air cleaner. It didn't cost anything, so I used our compressor to blow out the filter. I must admit that, at least before the engine gets all the way to operating temperature (that would be over 194 deg F), there seems to be no misfire. I'll drive on the Interstate to be sure cuz my gut tells me it can't possibly be this simple:

the filter wasn't super dirty.
I've never spent $0 to repair this truck!

The jury is still out and the truck is in the penalty box, but maybe I'm wrong (and I sincerely hope that's the case!).

And the newest rule for the Dog House on Wheels is that we won't let the truck idle for long periods just in case that caused a problem for the injectors.

Btw, I found a tiny stone (1/8"-1/4") caught in the folds of the filter. Had a filter not been there, we would be buying a new turbo charger and probably having the engine rebuilt. Yikes!

Ham Radio Stuff
Some more photos of the radio installation (odd how the red numerals of the antenna controller refuse to be in focus even though the case is... ???).

17m counterpoise antennas... 3 pair to go!

Scorpion SA-680 on its mast attached to the ladder

World's ugliest swing arm... yuck!

The Office

MFJ-1924 screwdriver antenna controller

Heil ClearSpeech powered speaker

Slide-penetrations for RF cable and antenna control

That Heil ClearSpeech speaker is really nice. It has a small amp as well as DSP filtering. Sadly it's an orphan as it's no longer being built.

The MFJ-1924 screwdriver antenna controller looks pretty fancy, but the reality is that it's just a turns-counter with 10 memories. There's no automatic tuning going on. You must have an SWR meter somewhere to detect null. The Elecraft K3 has that ability, so it's useful as there's really no way to repeat antenna position without something that counts turns. There is a controller called a TurboTuner (I think!) which does find null and stops screwdriver movement, but Ron Douglass, creator of the Scorpion antennas, tells me the design doesn't work well with his drive-motor.

I'll be tuning the counterpoise antennas over the next few days, so even though the parts are all in place it still isn't a working ham station.

Postcard from New Mexico- 7 *

2011-09-29T22:47:00.000-07:00

29 September 2011, Santa Fe

We're close to heading for our winter hangout. We'll be staying at the SKP Saguaro Co-op a little South of Benson, AZ. Barring a calamity we should be on our way 1 October with a one-niter somewhere. We've been keeping ourselves busy fixing problems and creating more, but I think we'll be ready by Saturday.

Along with maintenance chores I've gotten busy installing our ham radio station. That's occupied nearly all my available time for a couple weeks now...

Radio Station
Installation of the radio station happened really quickly. So far I've:

installed a removable mast (1-1/4" thin wall conduit from Home Depot) supported by a FlagPoleBuddy.com mount (need something better),
installed the new Scorpion SA-680 screwdriver antenna,
routed cables and installed support items,
drilled holes in the side of the entertainment slide (*that* was a nerve wracking!),
mounted weather covers over the holes to feed the wiring inside and keep weather & bugs out,
installed an MFJ-1924 screwdriver-antenna controller (with memory... pretty cool!),
installed a monstrosity of a swing arm (RAM-Mount... *ugly*) to mount the radio when stopped,
installed my old Daiwa 505SS power supply,
installed my old West Mountain Radio RIGrunner 4010S power strip to distribute 12VDC power,
installed my old Heil ClearSpeech comm speaker (out of production),
wired everything, and
checked it out.

Scorpion SA-680 with just the 17m counterpoise

Installation of the hardware is (pretty much) complete and I'm reasonably happy except for the ugly swing arm and the support for the antenna mast. But the work is by no means finished. I still have to tune the length of each of the counterpoise antennas... a long and tedious job. There are 8 antenna arranged in opposing pairs covering 4-bands: 80m, 40m, 20m and 17m. No way to get the tuning done before leaving on 1 Oct, so that job will have to wait till we get to Benson.

I did take time to download and install the latest firmware for the Elecraft K3.. our radio was way behind. The K3 is a software defined radio and the designer (Wayne Burdick/N6KR) is forever improving its operation. Wayne seems to work a 26-hr day!

Getting the antenna set up is a big deal, so it'll only happen when I know we're going to be somewhere for awhile. The antenna weighs just under 20 lbs, but there's also the metal mast, an RF choke. All together there's probably 30#-35#. Not too heavy until you stand it up and lift it onto the base of the FlagPoleBuddy mount. Any breath of air and it's pretty much out of control. Then after the mast + antenna are up I can add the counterpoise antennas.

Pre-departure Maintenance
Sitting or moving, there's always something that needs attention. In this case it was the wheel bearings. Fortunately our Montana is fitted Zerk fittings on the axles. Lubing the bearings can be done with a grease gun filled with wheel bearing grease. The bearings are supposed to get attention every 5,000 miles and this seemed like a good time to get it done.

The debacle with the tires back in June/July, which left us with broken landing gear, taught me that I need to have the Montana connected to the truck, move the landing gear clear of the ground, jack the frame first, then lift the wheel off the ground with a jack under the single axle. That's what I did and it worked great. But the fussing around in order to get the bottle jacks positioned and everything blocked is a giant PITA. All together it took about 3 hours: 20 minutes lubing the bearing plus 2hr 40min screwing around with jacks. Humbug! The next rig will have leveling jacks!

Now the bearings are serviced plus I reinstalled the trim piece I'd left off one wheel during the tire change. Still have to drain the water from the fresh water tank, stow the antenna and take several hundred pounds of crap to the house. We leave Saturday morning... a week late thanks to the late delivery of prescriptions from MedCo (the company I love to hate!).

Trip Planning
Haven't had time to decide where to stay on the trip South. There's only one stop before Benson... Las Cruces? Lordsburg? Deming? Dunno yet. This is unlike me... I tend to over-plan and to make reservations too far ahead. But we've been too busy to do the usual.

This evening, however, I updated the GPS we use for RV travel (we have lifetime maps for all our Garmin GPSs). Took about 4 hrs and the file was 1.5 GB. Yikes! But the deed is done and I'm hoping they've fixed a few things in our nüvi 465T. The 465 is designed for use with commercial trucks and RVs and is height-restriction aware. So far so good, and hopefully it will continue to keep us out of trouble.

Postcard from New Mexico- 6

2011-09-12T15:37:00.000-07:00

Santa Fe

I just added one more big chore to do before we leave. I'm way overdue to install our ham radio on the Montana (Celia is K5CMB and I'm NM5B). I may not finish everything before we leave for Benson, but I've got the radio sitting beside me and have have kluged the power line so I could at least see if it still operates after sitting for 2 years. Indeed it does and I've since downloaded 2 major revisions to the firmware.

Elecraft K3 hf transceiver (100 W)

Our radio is an Elecraft K3 100W hf (160m-6m) transceiver with all the early bells & whistles including the sub-receiver. Ours is #00136... part of the very early batch. Since we left to go play "RVers", Wayne/N6KR (he's a co-founder & head of technology) at Elecraft has added some really cool stuff like a panadapter and a 500W linear amp to name just 2.

The only thing we really need at the moment is an antenna. Several years ago I bought an Outbacker (mfd in Australia, but cut to US bands) portable/mobile antenna. We used this bullet-proof portable antenna in Santa Fe till I could install the larger 1/4 wave tunable-vertical from SteppIR Antennas. I used the SteppIR for several years on 40m-6m but always wished it covered the 80m band as well. When SteppIR came out with their Mk III vertical which could cover 80m-6m (basically added an optional loading coil), I switched to that newer model.

Our Outreach 500 and Outpost tripod

SteppIR verticals are great antennas but they're pretty big (33') and inappropriate for our use on an RV as they don't disassemble easily for thransport when we're moving the rig. However, our old Outbacker antenna (Outreach 500 model) stows easily in 2-pieces in its 4' bag. When I bought the Outbacker in 2003, I also bought an Outpost tripod (made by Alpha Delta) which was designed for Outbacker antennas and works quite well (useable on other mobile or portable antennas too). In the photo, the 2 pieces of the antenna (black) are each about 4', though the assembled length of the Outreach is about 11' 5" with the stinger extended.

Outpost with Outreach antenna

The odd looking aluminum contraption in the photo is the Outpost tripod which ends up unfolding a la a child's "transformer". Not exactly human-engineered when it comes to deployment, but once everything is properly extended and a couple spikes are driven through the holes in the 3' long feet, it's a very stable platform that usually negates the need for added radials.

So that's what will get us started. But the rules in most RV parks require any ham gear be attached to the RV and the Outbacker/Outpost don't meet that criteria. So our long term solution will be to use a mobile antenna (a screwdriver design) mounted on the rear of the Montana. I have a Scorpion SA-680 coming from Ron Douglass/NI7J. I ordered his Home Package version which includes n adapter plus a set of 8 radials in matching pairs for 40m, 20m, 17m and 10m. If that works as I expect, I'll replace the 8-port adapter with a 16 port and add 4 more bands (80m, 60m, 15m and 12m).

Anyway, that's the plan. The biggest issue is committing to putting a hole in the Montana!

A Couple Repairs

No matter whether you're traveling or parked, things on an RV break. This time 2 things happened at the same time: the water valve on the Thetford toilet started leaking, and the drive belt on the Splendide dryer both broke. Again. Splendide got the belt here in 2 days, but Thetford sent the replacement valve to a place only they know about.

Repairs on our rig are generally Blue jobs (along with vacuuming and washing dishes), but I'd never have been able to get it done without help from the Pink team. The dryer weighs less than Splendide says it does (it's less than the 67# Splendide states), but it's impossible to reconnect the dryer exhaust hose while holding the dryer. Lots of expletives, but now the dryer is repaired: an hour to replace the belt, then 2 hours of frustration getting the dryer back in place atop the washer.

If the water valve ever gets here we'll have a properly working toilet again. I think it would have been better to have bought the Thetford parts from PPL or someplace similar.

Postcard from New Mexico- 5

2011-09-11T00:06:00.004-07:00

Santa Fe

Must be getting close to time to head for Arizona cuz my beloved asked today if I'd checked the pressure in all the tires. Sheesh! I buy a new compressor and right away the Admiral thinks I ought to use it.

There's a reason for her concern since the new trailer tires are under-inflated at the moment. Discount Tire has a large industrial compressor which, as it turns out, is set at 80 psi max. Probably a shop safety issue so no one accidentally over-inflates a new tire enough to damage the tire or hurt someone. That's all well-and-good, but our new Load Range G tires need 115 psi for our load. In cases where 80 psi isn't enough, the shop has a small portable compressor that dribbles enough air to get tires to 100 psi. And that's still short of the 115 psi we need. Our old low-profile, lightweight 'pancake' compressor has an non-adjustable cut-off switch on the compressor that trips at 100 psi. And it has no regulator, so it's really the wrong thing to use.

Out with the BLUE, in with the RED

So I went to Home Depot where I found a compressor (Husky... the store brand) with adjustable output regulator. It pumps the tank to 155 psi, and the regulator allows setting any pressure up to the maximum tank pressure. Best news is that it has a substantially higher flow rate (3x-5x more) than the old $70US Campbell-Hausfield. Not bad for about $130US. Home Depot was out of stock, but a couple days later I brought home the new (and sadly 15# heavier) compressor, did the 20 minute break-in, tested it at full pressure... and put it away. It took several days and a rush-delivery internet order to get the pieces you see here which can all handle the higher pressure the tires require.

The old yellow Slinky went away with the old compressor

Once I had the new old fashioned rubber air hose, an air chuck with a lock, a proper tie gauge, and a proper angled double-chuck (for the duals), I connected to the new compressor and checked the air pressure. Shoulda' known... the Discount Tire tech inflated the tires to 80 psi and didn't use their backup compressor to get to 100 psi. Nice guys at DT, but everything they do has to be double-checked. Aarrgh!!

Garcia Tires

Now that all the drama is over I learned I probably could have had the tires changed right here in the park. Last week I heard a large compressor pumping away. When I walked the dogs I discovered Garcia Tire of Santa Fe had a mobile service truck busy at the park. They were mounting new tires on a Cougar 5th wheel right at the trailer-owners camp site. I've never dealt with Garcia Tires and I'm sure there's a surcharge to do it, but it's pretty cool to get new shoes on the rig without driving into town! A couple days later their service truck was back and the driver was repairing a tire on a big motorhome.

Spring At Last

The park has a very nice patio which turns into a camp site
during Balloon Fiesta!)

It's 6 months late, but it's finally spring in Santa Fe. Every living plant has turned green and has (or was) flowering. Just in time for us to bail out for SE Arizona. What a change from the persistent hot days we've had this summer. We did have the incessant spring winds. And initially they masked the heat which was to become the theme for summer 2011. We didn't like it, but what Santa Fe had was trivial compared to Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, et al. We're glad to see the end of this chapter and look forward to what comes next.

LOTS of sunflowers in New Mexico

Even this metal tree seems alive!

Shadows on the patio

Postcard from New Mexico- 4

2011-08-12T12:18:00.009-07:00

Santa Fe

After a month and a half of whining, the news is good this time. It took 6 weeks but the new landing gear arrived from Lippert Components Inc. (they manufacture the chassis for Keystone/Montana) and the legs are installed... took about 3 hours of labor.

And this time the locking pin extends thru both sides of each leg. No weird angles; no forcing the pin thru.

I was able to also have them replace the after-market connector in the bed of the truck. The optional Ford integrated trailer-brake controller had frequently given us a TRAILER NOT CONNECTED message since late March of last year. In hind sight, it was caused by an intermittent ground connection where the after-market plug connects to Ford's factory-installed wiring harness. Besides causing intermittent failure of the trailer running & brake lights, it also caused the trailer brakes to be intermittent. Yikes! Our work-around had been to use the Ford-provided plug next to the receiver hitch which, unfortunately, significantly limited the angle between the trailer and the truck when parking. [ Like the integrated trailer-brake controller, the hitch is part of Ford's optional tow package. ]

Back at Santa Fe Skies, I was surprised that parking was less of a problem this time. In part because it was the 2nd time getting into the same space, but mostly it's that the opening to the site is really wide. I was able to maneuver endlessly till I walked the rig close to the patio. If we aren't real close, the sewer hose ends up going over a slope which causes the hose-support (the 'caterpillar') to fall over about once per week... usually about the time I have to drain the black tank. Now the tank seems to drain properly and the hose stays put.

Best news of all is that we have the last 2 Goodyear G614 RST tires installed. The rig is pretty much good to go at this point since I was able to lube the spring shackles while the wheels were off. I told the manager at Discount Tire that they had seen way too much of us over the last year. First it was the truck tires which took several visits... not least of which was because I had no "key" for the spare tire. Then I found one of the new tires going flat which turned out to be a loose Schrader valve. We had them repair a tire on the Highlander which went flat after I put that car on the trailer to bring it to Santa Fe. And lastly was the debacle of one-at-a-time tire-replacement for the Montana. I must have been in an out of the store a dozen times.

Even though the truck & Montana are ready to go, we've decided to delay the trip to Maine. We've watched the endless mid-west heat on the weather reports which have us very concerned. The hot spell has gone on so long we chickened out. At this point we think our best bet is to stay in Santa Fe till the middle of September and then head to Benson, AZ for the winter. Then next year (2012) we'll leave Benson about the first of April and head to Santa Fe for annual checkups before leaving for Maine in the middle of May. That schedule will leave plenty of time to return by way of some of the Canadian Maritimes (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Is.) if we want. Probably have to skip Newfoundland and Labrador this time, but we can see Quebec and SE Ontario. The Maritimes were our easterly destination in 2010 when the house called us back.

Jacking the Montana

I thought I should touch on what I learned from this. When I first had the landing gear failure, I talked to several friends about what I thought had caused the problem. I'd hoped someone could offer a method of avoiding a repeat incident. I think it was Dan Weigman who said he always has the front of his rig supported by his truck when jacking anytime he removes a tire. Plus he jacks the rig only part way via the frame, then he puts another jack under the axle to get the tire clear of the ground. Jacking a fifth wheel this way limits how far the frame has to rise on one side, puts a minimal load on the axle (way less than it sees underway), and keeps all load off the landing gear. So I tried this approach for the last 2 tires and think this just became SOP for tire changes on the dog house.

The only issue is that you need enough blocking. A bottle jack just doesn't have the extension range to lift either the tire or (once the frame is up) the axle. I have 5 dozen 2"x8"x18" scraps plus 2- 2"x6"x6' boards (used for leveling) and it wasn't enough. So before we leave for winter pasture I'll need to add more blocking. And I'll need to replace the plastic "milk crate" (one of those cheap knock-offs from Crates&Barrels) which dies from UV in a matter of months.

Skip this paragraph if you don't want to hear me whine: our Montana (3400RL) has a corrugated plastic cover over the bottom. It keeps out dirt and debris and some of the winter cold so it's much appreciated. What I don't appreciate is that the frame doesn't have defined jacking-points which, if they were there, would be covered by that same corrugated plastic. As a result, I can't really be sure where I'm putting the jack relative to the frame. In fact, at one point I punched a hole in the plastic cover because there was no frame underneath the ram of the bottle jack. So a person has to be careful about where the bottle jacks are placed when jacking the frame. It would have been so easy for Lippert (they built the chassis which Keystone builds upon to create a Montana) to have welded pads under the frame to retain the end of the bottle jack ram. Also, jacking the axle to get the tire clear (200# tops) is a little scarey as the underneath surface of the axle is curved and not appropriate for jacking (the springs are mounted to the top of the axles). I use a block of wood which does little more than add friction, but it would be even scarier without it. End of whine.

Full-timer's Blog

One last thing: RVing friends Becky and Dave are full-timers we met in Sioux Falls, SD last July and we've stayed in touch for over a year now. A couple weeks ago Becky started a blog here so she wouldn't have to e-Mail all their photos to family & friends. Here's a couple photos of Celia reading her blog.

Here's Celia before reading Becky's blog:

Here's Celia after reading Becky's blog:

Clearly reading Becky's blog is good for your state of mind. Looks like it's "Admiral Approved"!

Postcard from New Mexico- 3

2011-07-13T12:45:00.097-07:00

Santa Fe, NM

So. Here we are in Santa Fe, all dressed up to go somewhere and no way to get there. I'll explain.

Since we bought this new Montana, I've been reading about what crap-tires Keystone installs on the rig. We've had zero problem, but then we try to keep the weight down and I limit top speed when pulling to 60 mph (the Marathons are rated at 65 mph max). Tire pressure is checked frequently and I have a small compressor stored in the basement to fill the tire if needed. The reality is that Goodyear Marathon tires are at their maximum load rating with our fully loaded 3400RL Montana. So at this point I don't know if we're doing something right or if those that have had blowouts are doing something wrong.

Whichever the case, in light of heading thru the midwest with some of the hottest weather on record, I finally waved the I'm-a-coward flag and ante'd up for a set of Goodyear G614 RST (over $400/tire!). The G614's we bought are LT230/85R-16G which are a tiny bit larger than the LT235/80R-16E Goodyear Marathon tires that came with the rig (7mm or about 0.28" larger radius). That's supposed to mean about 7 fewer revolutions per mile. The new tires are Load Range G instead of E which should give us plenty of reserve load capacity. And the G614 RST has a full steel belt (Goodyear's Unisteel construction) instead of steel+fiber belting of the Marathons.

Everything seemed straightforward until I realized we would have to disconnect and go to Discount Tire for an hour for mounting, balancing and installation. I hated the thought of 3 hours or more of tear-down/reconnect for just 1 hour of work (not to mention parking again which is always a white knuckle event for me!), so I chose to get a proper sized torque wrench- which I needed to get anyway- and take the old tires one-at-a-time to Discount Tire to get the new tires mounted.

Damaged leg with the pad removed.

Tires #1 & #2 went fine till one leg of the landing gear on the opposing (driver's) side dropped about 4". The leg extension slipped when the locking pin either sheared or bent, but at least it didn't collapse completely... there must have been enough pin left to jam the extension. My WAG - technical mnemonic used in aerospace proposals which means Wild Ass Guess - is that jacking the rig via the frame (per the Keystone manual) tips the trailer to so great an angle that the resulting side force contributed to additional load... which may mean it was on the verge of collapsing anyway. In the photo I've removed the articulating foot (pad) from the leg so I could fit a jack stand under the frame and be able to remove the bottle jack I used to lift the weight of the frame off the damaged leg.

Undamaged (I hope!) leg with the pad in place.

More significantly, our spring-loaded lock pins for the leg extension never did protrude thru the both sides as I suspect they're supposed to. There's nothing in the (nearly useless) manual and it wasn't mentioned in the walk-thru. If the pin extended thru both sides of the leg it would mean the load isn't distributed across 2 points of contact but rather the weight rests on just 1 point. This is the passenger- (curb-) side leg which shows what the drivers-side looked like before it collapsed. Notice the slight downward angle of the pin handle which prevents the pin from extending through the far side. The end of the pin is pointing up at a slight angle. If your locking pin looks like this, you need to get it fixed before your rig breaks like ours!

So now we're trying to figure out how to get repaired so I can get the last 2 tires and get on our way to Maine. The nearest Montana dealer is Aloha RV in Albuquerque, but the service manager said his boss told him they won't touch it since we didn't buy our rig from them. And that's a reality of RVs vs. cars/pickups: they don't have to work on your rig unless you bought from them.

TravelTown, the Santa Fe RV dealer where we bought our used 2003 Montana (not a dealer for new Montanas), will work us into their schedule but that means there will be no consideration for an out-of-warranty claim. And TravelTown is busy- this is when they sell a lot of new rigs- so they have to work us into the shop's schedule plus find the source for replacement legs.

The Montana is sick and waiting for repair,but the truck is good to go. There's fresh full-synthetic AMSOIL 5W-40 in the engine and, like the first time we used this type oil, the diesel engine is noticeably quieter as it idles... an odd but interesting side effect of full synthetic motor oil. Plus a new in-line filter in the transmission.

And we had the truck's tires rotated which turns out to be a bigger deal than a car because of the dual rear wheels. Apparently you have to dismount certain of the tires since there are 2 different kinds of wheels: 4 aluminum rims and, counting the spare, 3 steel rims. So with the mixed wheel types you can't arbitrarily put any wheel in just any location. So some wheels can be relocated while others have to have just the tire moved.

At least the brake lining is still OK: 50% worn at about 62,000 miles towing a combined load of nearly 23,000#... very close to the max allowed. Probably a testament to the brakes on the Montana working OK.

Now we're waiting to hear from TravelTown that they're ready to have us come over for repair. We look forward to finally calling Brad, Stephanie and the girls and saying "We're on our way!"

Eye pressure and vision are just fine after the YAG laser procedure. Worked beautifully.

Btw, a WAG (above) is a slightly lower quality estimate than a SWAG which is a Scientific Wild Ass Guess. The difference between the 2 is that you use a calculator to add the numbers in a SWAG, but a WAG is done in your head. Both a WAG and a SWAG are considered substantially superior to a PIROOMA: Pulled It Right Out Of My Ass. Customers generally were never impressed with any of these 3 as a basis for awarding a contract. Credit for coining the PIROOMA goes to Des Bailie, a master of dead-pan who must be a killer at poker.

Postcard from New Mexico- 2

2011-07-01T13:52:00.133-07:00

Santa Fe, NM

Solar array at Santa Fe Skies RV Park from the east end.

We got back to Santa Fe and settled in at Santa Fe Skies RV Park and were dazzled by the new solar array the Brown family installed. While large solar arrays are nothing new, what is amazing is that this is a small private RV park. This isn't something the local utility or the state or county did. Just a small 235 space RV park that is sick of paying the utility company at a growing rate. Since visitors don't pay for electric power, this is a big cost savings to the park.

With the rig hooked up and safe, we reserved a car-trailer and headed back to Arizona to retrieve the Highlander. Now that was an experience.

All went well with picking up the new trailer. We arrived in Tucson well ahead of closing time and were able to drive the 40 miles back to Benson before dark. We stowed the car while it was still light then took the dogs to a motel for their first ever stay. It took about 2 seconds to realize that dog owners get to stay in the same room previously damaged by another dog (or more likely the dog's owner!). But it went well and they didn't bark too much. Breakfast was a Kind Bar and a couple donuts from Suzy's... best donuts in southeastern Arizona! Nothing like a healthy breakfast to start the day.

U-Haul tire repair... thank you U-Haul!

So off we went to Santa Fe. We'd gone perhaps 90 miles- somewhere just before the New Mexico state line- when a car pulled up beside us and the driver frantically pointed at the trailer. We pulled over and... what a bummer. The right-rear trailer tire was flat and, though not yet shredded, was clearly not going to hold air ever again. I stayed on the shoulder and crept along maybe 2.5 miles to the first available exit and called U-Haul. It took a little longer than they said, but in an hour a really nice tire-dude showed up with a new tire and wheel to replace the now completely shredded original. In a few minutes we were again on our way to Santa Fe and had further problem. But I was left with the conviction that, if you're going to pull a U-Haul (or anything else for that matter), you need to stick to Interstates or major highways where you can expect cell service.

We settled into a different site at Santa Fe Skies which looked like it might be easier to back into. I'm the first to admit that I'm terrible at parking the rig so I try to make it as easy as possible regardless the view another site might have. Now that we're in the site I realize that we'll be taking a tour of the back portion of the park in order to leave, but that shouldn't be a big deal.

Our medical appointments started right away with me leading the parade. All went well including my eye-pressure check, plus I got a referral to see someone for a vitrectomy of my right eye. The floaters are getting really bad and, since it was such a miraculous improvement in my left eye, I'm anxious to get it done on the right.

Late April is when the southwest started burning. First came the Wallow fire in eastern Arizona which covered border towns like Reserve & Luna in heavy smoke. Albuquerque and Santa Fe also had dense, choking smoke so Celia brought our HEPA filters from the house to clear the crap out of the Montana. Santa Fe is something over 100 miles away from Wallow, AZ but you'd think it was just over the hill. For the first week we stayed inside and hugged the AC and the filters. [ Wallow was at 540,000 acres the last time I checked in mid-July. ]

las Conchas fire (los Alamos) the evening of 26 June.

About the time the wind shifted and gave us some relief from the smoke from Wallow, a fire started in Pacheco Canyon immediately north of Santa Fe. While we were all worrying about what was going to happen with that fire, another broke out in las Conchas canyon (a tree was knocked down by strong winds and damaged a power line) which threatened los Alamos and the Los Alamos National Labratory. This was (at least) the 2nd fire to threaten the town of los Alamos, the previous being in 2011. While they were building the fire crew for las Conchas, yet another fire broke out in Cochiti canyon, north of Cochiti reservation and south of las Conchas. [ las Conchas has become the largest wild fire in New Mexico history at over 150,500 acres when I updated this mid-July. It was considered 61% contained at that time. ]

las Conchas fire about 3 PM 26 June.

Even though it's now part of the las Conchas fire, we still see smoke from the Cochiti area. Pacheco is 80% contained with 10,500 acres burned. And the cost so far is $9,000,000 for Pacheco and $37,000,000 for las Conchas and growing. Yikes!

This is what las Conchas looked like from Santa Fe Skies a few hours after it started on 26 June 2011.

While we'd like to get on our way to Maine to visit our family, I'm not sure where we can go without either being too hot or in danger of yet another fire. What a summer!

Postcard from New Mexico

2011-04-12T16:00:00.032-07:00

Las Cruces, NM

We hunkered down at the KOA in Las Cruces waiting for the wind to ease so we could get to Santa Fe. The KOA has a wonderful view (I've said that before) which at the moment is non-existent: everything is obliterated by dust. Not only are the Organ Pipe Mountains lost from view, so too are the cultivated fields at the bottom of the hill where the park is situated... yikes!

This dust storm puts me in mind of childhood days in Stockton. They had dust storms too... peat dust. The afternoon wind would howl and the bottom land in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta would become airborne. Gave us something to chew as we struggled head-down into the blast. Not to mention what it did to the interior of a house!

The dogs could give a damn, of course. They were excited about new smells and new people to bark at till they got the required scratches behind the ears. So they're pretty much happy campers.

I had planned on 2 nites in order to let the wind die down, but the forecast for Santa Fe said there was a chance of rain then snow along with headwinds on the way there. So we stayed 3 nites in Las Cruces.

We had cross winds getting here from Benson, AZ. The rig did reasonably well and I didn't have a single surprise lane-change. Our MOR/Ryde pin box and suspension parts are amazing!

Santa Fe, NM

We rolled into Santa Fe Skies RV Park on Monday afternoon and had our choice of sites (we're ahead of the summer crowd I guess). We chose site Y-9 for our stay here.

We used to have a a fence about 10-20 yards behind the rig, then a view across the mesa toward the prison (3 miles away?) and the Ortiz Mountains on the horizon. Now the fence has been moved and the space between the rig and the new fence is filled with a solar array. The park has finished the installation of 810 solar panels, each capable of 238 Watts. At full output he solar array will generate 192 kW. Amazing stuff for a small privately owned RV park (125 spaces?).

There was no time to rest as I had the first of my regular doctor appointments starting at 10:00 the next morning. Along with doctors confirming we're still alive, we'll start getting the house ready to go on the market. So this is going to be a busy stay if we're to get on our way to Maine to see grand kids!

And that is a segue to fuel costs.

Saving $$$

Banks Power Shop

It's amazing what it costs to save money. Last January I had Banks Engineering in Azusa, CA install everything they offer for our 2008 Ford F-350. We skipped the Banks SpeedBrake since the Ford tow/haul mode seems to work OK. Since Banks doesn't remove the diesel particulate filter (the infamous DPF), we can't expect miraculous improvement in fuel economy like friends Dan & Betty got on their 2006 Dodge truck. Still we hoped for some gains to try and offset the rising cost of diesel... $4.36/gal (!) when we filled up in Santa Fe.

Banks showroom at the Power Shop

The bottom line has been a net gain. The last time we made this trip we ended up at 9.4 mpg as calculated by the built-in computer (Ford claims it's more accurate than odometer/fuel pump readings). This time the computer said 10.9 mpg which is a gain of about 16%. By my reckoning that means roughly every 7th tank will be free and is applied as a credit to the $4,500 investment in Banks gear. Each fill-up currently costs on the order of $150, so it's going to take a long while to recap the cost: 30 "free" tanks out of about 210 tanks altogether. At 250 miles/day that means we'll have to go almost 53,000 miles to break even. That's not an unreasonable distance for us since we've already put 32,000 on the truck since October 2009.

In the service bay at Banks

If you're gathering info on what Banks can do for your Ford 6.4 liter Power Stroke pulling over 15,000# (a 5th wheel) and you're not familiar with the region, here's a little geography lesson. The trip from Benson, AZ starts at about 3,600' elevation, goes thru a lot of +/- grade changes till it reaches Albuquerque, NM at about 5,300', then the last 50 miles is mostly up-hill to Santa Fe, NM. We're at 6,800' here at the park. The computed distance is at least 515 miles (Yahoo! maps), but we added about 45 miles running around Las Cruces and another 15 in Santa Fe before filling the tank. This means the truck's built-in computer, which maintains a 400-mile rolling average, had only current-trip data when we stopped with 576 miles on the odometer. We had some gusty crosswinds from Benson to Las Cruces, then relatively still air from Las Cruces to Santa Fe. If I had to venture a guess it would be that we saw about average mileage for this trip... crosswinds & no headwinds and a substantial elevation change.

Postcard from Arizona- 5

2011-03-31T14:26:00.008-07:00

Benson, AZ

Mike & Susan

A dance at the Saguaro SKP park club house

Life in the slow lane of southeast Arizona kept us busy with tacos on Monday night, fish fry on Friday nights, dances most Saturday nites and Celia's line dance classes 3 mornings each week. And there was a pet show as part of the park's Spring Fling. The competition was fierce with awards for tallest dog, shortest dog, oldest dog, youngest dog and the dog that came the greatest distance. Annie lost out on the tallest dog award by a hair, but she took losing very well and didn't pout at all. Mike and I, however, think she was cheated. And we're pouting!

We made a trip to Sierra Vista with Mike & Susan plus 4 of their visiting relatives. We went to the Golden Corral for the buffet dinner. I'm not a fan of buffets but the mountain of food for $10 was actually very good. We did nearly get trampled: we learned it's not a good idea to get in the way of hungry Minnesotans when it's feeding time! :)

The fire pit... a recycled washing machine tub!

And Mike organized a campfire to celebrate Susan's birthday. It wasn't too cold initially, but by 8:30 everyone was ready to go stand in front of a heater! The SKP park has a group area for these events which includes a fire ring made of an old washing machine tub. Worked great to cook hot dogs and roast some marshmallows. Celia put together a S'more for me which I mostly ended up wearing so I stuck with just marshmallows.

Broken water filter (new bowl in place)

We've made a couple trips to Santa Fe, NM since we first arrived in AZ. I had to have follow-up visits with the ophthalmologist. Each of those trips involved yet another semi-emergency with the water system. What a money pit the house has become! Day-to-day living on the premises would probably have prevented the problems becoming big as they would have been spotted early. But we like RV-living too much for that silliness, so we pay the piper. For instance I think I whined about the $1,700 water bill last entry. Since I posted that whine we were granted some relief by the water company and we now have a $1,300 credit on our account.

Which is a good thing since, just prior to our most recent visit, we learned there was yet another water leak. Again we don't know how long the leak was there but there it was anyway. We called Chris Blea immediately and he had it resolved the same day. It was a bad solder joint that started to leak for whatever reason. No broken copper pipes this time. At least we would have water when we arrived. Yeah, sure...

We had water alright, but there was no heat. We got to the house at about 11:00 pm on a Sunday and wondered why we didn't hear the boiler fire up when we turned up thermostats. I could make out the sound of what I thought might be water in the boiler turning to steam, so I assumed we had air in the lines associated with the water leak. Time to call Chris again. We were (again!) very thankful for our fireplace insert in the living room. Did a great job taking the chill off as the temps dropped in the evening.

Chris is now working for the golf course during the day so we had to wait till he was off. He bled the system several times but couldn't get rid of the problem. Eventually he found the circulation pump had failed and oh-by-the-way 2 of the several ball valves were leaking and needed replacement. He was back the next day with a new pump and 2 new ball valves. He had everything back in order quick enough. So now the heating system is working again and we'll not have that to deal with that when we return to Santa Fe in early April. But I can't help but wonder what other problem awaits our discovery!

So from the preceding you can anticipate we're getting ready to move the rig. Finally. We'll head back to Santa Fe and get busy getting the house on the market. We have a lot of stuff to find a home for (anybody ~~need~~ want a 60" loom?) and even more to just dump. We'll be keeping the truck busy hauling 'stuff'!

If my eye issues continue on the current track (things look decent at this point) we should be able to head for the northeast in July.

Postcard from Arizona- 4

2011-02-28T23:35:00.393-07:00

Benson, AZ

We're still camped in SKP Saguaro Co-op RV park here in Benson. It's proven to be a great home base and we continue to enjoy the many activities the park offers like entertainment & dances. And Celia has been going to the line dance classes 3 days/week (it's been almost 11 years and I still feel burned out, so I've declined to go along).

That's not to say we haven't been outside the park. Tombstone, just off AZ-80, is about 25 miles away, so we've been there several times taking friends or just for lunch. Bisbee is another 25 miles past Tombstone on AZ-80 and we've been there for lunch and to roam the shops in the old town. Sierra Vista, the civilian town outside the US Army's Fort Huachuca (wa-CHU-ka), is about 30 miles away on AZ-90 and is an alternate to shopping in Tucson. You can find restaurants, doctors... whatever. And Sierra Vista has possibly the biggest dog park I've ever seen. The only thing they don't have is a Trader Joe's!

A nice surprise has been that we've found several restaurants in Benson that are pretty darn good. We like the pasta over at Irene's. And the chicken-fried-chicken at Palatianos' is to die for, plus the carrot cake and red velvet cake at Palatianos' is addictive... you've been warned! The Horseshoe Cafe has been great each time we've eaten there. And the Apple Farm serves an enormous multi-course meal for $9.95. The portion size at all 4 is overwhelming, so we eat half and take home the rest for lunch or dinner the next day.

The food at the SKP park is a winner as well: taco nite at SKP is a must-go event and the fish fry is great as well. It's not that the prices are exceptional, but the food is very good. While the prices aren't rock-bottom, all extra $$$ goes to fund park events, and for the park's Cactus Wrens organization which uses their $$$ to fund their charitable work. One of the big food events is the annual food auction which brought in $4,000 this year.

A nice surprise has been G&F Pizza on 5th Ave. They have several very good but curiously named pizzas on the menu (we had the Zearing Pizza which uses feta... excellent!), plus I saw an Irby Pizza on the menu. I had to ask the source of the name since I went to high school with someone named Irby in Stockton. Our waitress told us that G&F has been around for 38 years and has always had the same name thru 2 or 3 owners. The founders had named some pizzas after businesses in town, hence the Zearing and Irby pizzas. Plus the current owner, Benson born & raised, remembers how much he enjoyed going to G&F when he was in high school, so he does occasional (?) 50%-off nites for the local high school students. I didn't know anybody did that sort of thing anymore! Way-tuh go G&F!

Something unique to Benson has been the home made soup the restaurants here serve. Apparently locals or maybe the snow birds demand good soup, so there restaurants seem to all have something worth trying. I had the best green chili soup (green chili stew) I've ever had at Irene's, and some soups I've never heard of at the the others. Not a loser in the bunch.

If there's a down-side to Benson it's that they have great donuts (or doughnuts if you prefer). Celia claims they beat Krispy Kreme. It's unfortunate cuz we're trying desperately to break our donut habit. If we don't, neither of us are going to fit in the truck anymore.

Btw, the worlds best donuts are homemade by our friends Doug & Pat Bartman from Ontario!

Santa Fe, NM

A couple weeks ago we drove the truck back to Santa Fe. I had another follow-up to see how the pressure in my left eye is doing. Sadly it's not so good and has hit an all-time high of 31. So I now have an additional eye-drop to use once per day plus yet another appointment for the end of March to see if the pressure has started down to a safe range (below 22). That is near the time we've scheduled other medical appointments so we'll take care of all the doctor/dentist things at the same time.

We were pleased to see that the compartment that houses the water heater (rear of the house) hasn't given any more problem. Didn't freeze and there seems to be no more leaks. We filed for some relief on the super-sized water bill (about $1,700) but haven't heard anything so far.

The trip was also a chance to see how the new Banks equipment does on a different power setting. This time I upped the setting to #4. Things were looking really good with even better mileage till we got about 150 miles into the trip back to Benson. At that point the mileage suddenly started falling like the proverbial rock and I was getting a little panicky ("Damn! Is this thing broken already?!"). When I stopped at a rest stop I was greeted with about 25 mph wind in the face. At 65 mph over the ground that gave us a wind speed of about 90 mph. Apparently the #4 setting does pretty well on the straight & level with no wind. When the load goes up, though, the tuner cranks up the power (each higher setting has greater power up thru #6) which means more fuel. So I set it back to #3 and we soldiered on. Still managed to beat our old fuel economy even with the strong wind. So, with strong headwinds (but without the trailer) we're still doing significantly better on fuel consumption. We ought to recap our investment in about 25 years!

While our F350's mileage is improved by about 20%, it's still nowhere near as good as our Toyota Highlander. We use the Highlander for our daily ride which not only saves fuel, it lets us use 87 octane regular which is cheaper. Diesel prices are going over the top hitting $4/gal last Saturday, but regular gas was $3.30/gal. So having the Highlander for everyday driving is a help. Not to mention it's a pretty plush ride compared to the truck!

Benson, AZ

I've found I can do a pretty good job imitating an ostrich. But, like the ostrich, keeping your head buried in the sand leaves a great opportunity to get bit in the ass. And that's what happened with the RV toilet. I'd been ignoring the fact the toilet bowl seemed to shift a little from time-to-time. It didn't leak and the seal was still good, so I followed my old axiom of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Well, I didn't know it but it really was 'broke' and I should have fixed it sooner. On the Saturday nite before the Oscars, Celia noticed a wet area on the floor and it was clear I needed to get my butt in gear.

Turns out the toilet had not been reassembled correctly when some pre-delivery warranty work had been done at Lazy Days, the dealer in Florida where we bought the rig. One of the 2 bolts which hold the porcelain bowl to the plastic base (the plastic base has the ball valve and the seals) had not been run home in the threads. Instead the bolt threads were pressing against the side of the boss that contains the threaded hole.

After a lot of swearing and gnashing of teeth I managed to get things reassembled (I like to think it was done correctly this time) and there seems to be no more leak. In fairness to the tech who did the repair, the assembly has to be done blind: line things up as best you can and hope the bolt is going into the threads and not to the side of the boss.

And just where exactly is it written that toilets are supposed to crap out (pardon the pun) on a Sunday?! And was it really necessary to have snow in the forecast?

And yes- it did snow. Not more than an inch, but it was snow. And cold. The snow was gone a few hours later so no biggy. It made for a cold nite but we're supposed to get back into the high 70s as the week goes by. Hard to beat southeastern AZ in the winter!

When we take the dogs with us in our Highlander, they really have to struggle. Celia tracked down a seat-extension (my description... don't recall the mfr's) for the back seat. It bridges the space between the front edge of the rear seat and the back of the front seat without blocking the vents for the batteries under the rear seat. We had one before but the dogs are so big they broke it. Unfortunately we pitched it when it broke which was a mistake... if I'd kept it I could have replaced the thin plastic sheet with plywood and all would have been well again. Now the replacement is in place and the dogs are happy.

Which brings up another thing. We'd understood that hybrids needed new batteries every 5 years. Our 2006 Highlander Hybrid is now at least 5 years old and the batteries still seem to be OK. To be safe, though, I asked our mechanic (Steve Inouye, owner & head mechanic of ToyAuto Man in Santa Fe) about it and he said he's never needed to replace a battery pack on any hybrid he services. Apparently batteries last much longer than originally estimated... ??? I believe our battery pack recharges much faster than it used to which makes me believe it has less capacity, but I'm not anxious to spend the $4,000 it would take to find out if the battery pack really needs replacing. I think I'll just stick my head back in the sand!

Tombstone, AZ

Btw, we watched the latest Tombstone movie the other nite. It's the one with Kurt Russell & Val Kilmer. It was released in 1993, so it's not that new anymore. The movie had a lot more meaning now that we've been to the town of Tombstone several times. The movie wasn't filmed in Tombstone. Instead they created a set in Mescal, AZ (just a few miles from Benson on Mescal Rd) and tried to replicate the original store fronts, colors, signage, whatever. They even built a replica of Tombstone's boot hill cemetery ("Here lies Les Mor, 4 slugs from a .44. No Les, no More."). The actors were all required to read the newspaper report of the inquest after the gun fight at the OK Corral (it was actually in a lot behind the corral) so they understood their character's part in the fight. The film is by no means a documentary, but they did try to get the characters right before embellishing with the usual Hollywood glitz. For instance, Doc Holiday's girl friend is still Kate, but the beautiful actress that plays the part doesn't conjure the right image of someone that would later name her saloon Big Nose Kate's. The saloon is still there and serves a decent lunch. And it's worth a trip to the men's room where you'll find the urinal trough filled with ice with a sign above: "This ice is rarely used to make our drinks."

And before you ask why they put ice in the urinal, it's because as the ice melts it 'flushes' the urinal.

You can tell spring is getting close cuz friends Betty & Dan, who bought a new Montana 3400RL this past December, have left Tucson and are working their way slowly back toward the Canadian border. Come the first of May they plan to make the jump across the border and head back home to Alaska. Bon voyage, guys! See you next year.

Postcard from Arizona- 3

2011-01-28T08:22:00.404-07:00

Main road looking across the dry camp area

Benson, AZ

We're still hanging out at the SKP Saguaro Co-op RV Park in Benson, AZ. We were enjoying the stay so much that we even got on their hot list for getting a lease. We enjoy the park a lot because of the people and the activities available during the season (winter). But there's a lot to be said economically for making this home base. Renting a site on a monthly basis is about $11/day and a lease (currently under $8,900 plus the cost of improvements) is a lifetime lease... no additional rent though there are maintenance fees and occasional assessments like road repairs or whatever. So we got on the Hot List and, after signing an annual rental agreement, moved to site #306 on the southern edge of the park where we will probably not have to move while we're visiting this park.

Santa Fe, NM

We made a trip to Santa Fe for me to see the ophthalmologist. Santa Fe is also the location of what has become the money pit... our as yet unsold house. The day before leaving we got a call from the person watching our house. Seems we had water pouring out the back of the house. Oh joy.

Replacement bowl installed

Onyx was able to shut off the water and saw that the water filter we installed ahead of the on-demand water heater had burst. That could only have happened if we lost power to the electric space heater or if the heater (brand new before we left) had died. So our return was both timely and necessary.

While the repair of the water leak was a simple $39 fix, the cost of the water will be about $1,700. The leak amounted to nearly 100,000 gallons. I received a call from the Santa Fe City office that handles water billing and among other things was told there's an appeal process available that will probably get us some relief, but we're still going to have a very large bill.

News from the eye doctor was not so hot either as the pressure was up again... now at 27. I have to go back in 30 days (yet another trip to Santa Fe) to see if this was just a transient or if a change in medication is necessary. Bummer. In hind sight it was a good that we had already decided to not head for Clewiston, FL as we had been planning for the last year... it would have been even more disappointing to find out at the last minute we couldn't go.

Dealing with diesel fuel cost

[ This part's for me. I want to be able to remember in a couple years why I spent a lot of $$$ at Banks Engineering! ]

Another troubling development (you'd have to be dead from the neck up to not think fuel costs were going to rise) is the painful cost of diesel fuel. I did some digging on the internet looking for alternatives and, with a friend Dan Weigman doing the same thing for his 6.7L Cummins-powered Dodge, we shared what we learned.

It quickly became clear that the evil culprit is the diesel particulate filter- the DPF. There are options for improving fuel economy on the current crop of diesel engines- like replacement air intake & filter, larger exhaust piping, more efficient inter-cooler, and re-mapping the fuel injection will all offer some measure of economy. Until you remove the DPF, however, large gains in fuel economy are going to be unlikely.

As I understand the DPF that we have on our 2008 Ford (it has a 6.4L International engine), the process works by collecting unburned fuel (diesel particulate) on the exposed surfaces of the DPF, i.e. the DPF collects soot that would otherwise be dumped out the exhaust pipe. The thing about this soot is that (compared to a gas) it's a solid and it's heavy. Being heavier than air, it will eventually drop to the ground or collect on trees or whatever.

The capacity of the DPF isn't endless, so something has to be done to clean the filter and that happens by periodically raising the exhaust gas temperature (EGT) in order to burn the soot. That high temperature is close to 1,300 deg F which causes the soot to turn into ash which apparently is carried out the exhaust instead of the soot. So, take your pick: either soot or ash plus CO & CO2).

The way they raise EGT to clean the filter is to inject raw diesel into the exhaust ahead of the DPF. When these super-high temperature gases hit the soot, the soot (incompletely burned fuel in the form of carbon) is turned into the ash I mentioned (I don't know the chemical composition of the ash) plus CO + CO2. If I have this right, it means cleaning the DPF is increasing the amount of greenhouse gases over the amount otherwise in the exhaust as well as increasing fuel consumption in order to reduce particulate-carbon fallout. Other nasties like sulfuric acid have already been greatly reduced with the new low-sulfur diesel fuel diesel engines must use.

In any case, the cleaning process uses a lot of fuel. In our case, every time cleaning occurs, mileage drops by 0.1-0.2 mpg. And cleaning happens every 75-150 miles. The result is that previously more-efficient diesel engines offered today have been made to be less efficient than some gas engines when the truck is driven solo (not towing or not carrying a load). The modern diesel engine still produces huge amounts of torque under heavy load, so there's really no reason to think about using a gas engine for towing/pushing a large RV. Put the fuel economies of the good ol' days are gone.

The fixes available on the street amount to a pick-and-choose combination of 1 or more of 4 approaches:

improve engine breathing (air filter, bigger exhaust)
improve turbo-charger efficiency thru additional cooling of the compressed air to the intake
improve fuel mapping of the mfrs engine management firmware (this mostly increases torque)
get rid of the DPF and change the engine management firmware to stop cleaning the filter

The 4th option will probably cause a problem with the manufacturer if you're still under warranty as we are. And, if vehicle inspections become a reality for small diesel trucks, the owner might have to pay a $1,700 fine for having modified the DOT/EPA (?) approved exhaust system plus have to restore the original design. It's unclear what happens if you do any or all the other 3 changes (breathing, inter-cooling and fuel mapping), but we decided that was the route we would try.

I ended up choosing Banks Engineering as the supplier for exhaust system, air intake & filter, turbo inter-cooler, and fuel injection module. It's not going to be a spectacular improvement since we still have the DPF, but we need to do something if we are to continue traveling with the dog house.

Show room at Banks Power House.

So, with neighbor & friend Mike Phelps as co-pilot, we drove to Azusa, CA to have Banks' Big Hoss kit installed. Banks is a pretty large operation (something like 700 people working in 7 buildings) with a division dedicated to installation and repair (Banks Powerhouse). Check-in was at 6:00 AM and the shop closes at 3:00 PM, so we were there when they opened. Apparently we would have been out of there by 11:00-11:30 AM but for one small problem. Oue truck has a factory installed option of a roll-over ball gooseneck hitch. It's made by B&W in Kansas and is a perfect match for our B&W Companion (5th wheel) hitch. Since it was a factory option, Banks had to get their Tube Shop involved (they manufacture the exhaust systems and the headers). banks hadn't previously had a truck available to them to be able to make the necessary measurements, so our truck became a Beta test site. Almost 2 hours later we saw someone walking across the street with about 4' of bent 4" exhaust tubing over his shoulder. Another 2 hours and the truck pulled out for a test ride.

On the hoist at Banks Power Shop in Azusa, CA

We got a walk-thru on pushing buttons on the Banks iQ controller. The iQ is basically a PDA with a built-in GPS which monitors & controls the 6-Gun tuner, keeps track of data during operation and testing, computes fuel usage, and, with the right option + maps, will navigate.

10-minutes later we were on our way to dinner and ready to watch the State of the Union Address. Next morning we headed back to Benson and watched the mileage computer like a hungry hawk looking for lunch. The #1 setting is Stock and sure enough it had about the same uninspiring mileage as before. #2 was the Economy mode and it was anything but economical.

The Customer Support Mgr. that did the run-thru had said to try all the modes because each truck is different and sometimes other modes work better. So up the setting went to #3 which is the first of the high power modes. As soon as I reset the mileage computer the display jumped to 27 mpg. The euphoria was over in an instant when I realized we were on a slight down-grade. Still, the mileage seemed to hang at around 20-25 mpg as we headed out of town.

After an especially steep grade (sign at the start of the grade: "TURN OFF AC TO PREVENT OVERHEATING") I reset the mileage computer and left it untouched the rest of the way to Benson. That was about 400 miles of very gradual uphill driving from 500' at the top of the pass to 4,200' at the Benson turnoff. We were showing 18.2 mpg as we got to the park and shut off the engine. A similar trip with the stock setup had ended at 15.2 mpg, a net mileage improvement of 20%. I think we can live with that till the day comes we are pushed into getting a DPF-Delete kit.

Btw, Mike told me that he learned that letting EGT drop to under 400 deg F before shutting off the engine was supposed to be a good safety practice. That's easy enough to add to routine-driving practice. Also, turning on the head lights (turns on the amber clearance lights) is supposed to drop the chance of an accident by 17%. Yet another cost-free improvement. Nice to have someone with a CDL riding shotgun!

A word of caution to the weary traveler... some sections of I-10 were miserable as we got close to LA. It appears that the concrete wasn't set up correctly which leaves the surface with a near-washboard face. The suspension of our F-350 is pretty stiff which was enough to make many miles of the trip a trial!

That's it for now. More later

Postcard from Arizona-2

2010-12-09T09:59:00.006-07:00

Benson, AZ

We stayed a week at the KOA in Benson, AZ. It was a good stop and we enjoyed the rural setting including the yowling coyotes. We were surrounded by mountains (Dragoons et al) with desert brush & cactus everywhere outside the park. Sunsets were spectacular and, thanks to getting rousted by the dogs at 7:30 every day, we are able to see the sunrise. I think I prefer watching the sun set to watching it rise before morning coffee! They even had a Thanksgiving dinner for the guests which was pretty cool.

Part of the display area at Davis-Monthan in Tucson, AZ

We made it to Davis-Monthan AFB for a visit with Dan & Betty to see their new 2011 Montana. Looks to be substantially the same as ours, so we don't have to be envious of a newer model! :) Montana works small changes into production throughout a model year, but outside shape changes or major changes to the interior seem to be reserved for a new model year (July? August?). While there we wandered thru a static display at the base, some of which are active aircraft at the base, then lunch before heading back to rescue the dogs.

We've known about the local SKP park in Benson but had never been there. It's not owned by Escapees RV Club, but it is affiliated hence the phonetically similar name. RVing friends we'd met in Santa Fe were really enthused about SKP Saguaro and had gotten on the 'hot list' to lease a site (currently an 8 year wait). So we decided to drive over and take a look. Wow! What a place! Huge sites on the order of 2,500 +/- sq ft; wide, paved roads; 50A/30A power with full hookup; giant club house with activities scheduled all day. Something for everyone it seemed.

Our assigned site at SKP Saguaro in Benson, AZ

Lease holder sites are available to rent by visitors when the lease holder is absent. While they don't receive income from the rental, they do get credit against their annual fees so there's incentive. The park is very popular with Escapees members and this is the busiest time of year here, so I never expected to find a place for the remaining 6-weeks we'll be in Arizona. But I asked anyway and- tah-dah! -they had room for us. May have to move at some point if the lease holder returns unexpectedly, but I believe we're covered one way or another till it's time for my mid-January appt. So we hitched up on Saturday AM, trundled across town and checked in at SKP Saguaro. We ended up in a site which has a casita (not available for use by a renter). But the site has a large *level* pad and the it's landscaped. Pretty nice digs.

And check the size of the streets and lots. Even I finally managed to get parked here.

To cap it all off we learned that Mike & Susan, the folks who told us about SKP Saguaro while we were in Santa Fe, have decided to leave Seattle and are headed to Benson. How cool is that?!

Postcard from Arizona

2010-11-23T15:57:00.008-07:00

We're finally out of Santa Fe! You'd almost think we didn't want to leave. Which is close. But temps were dropping and we even had some snow. Clearly we'd over-stayed our welcome and it was time to move on.

Plus the solar power system being installed at Santa Fe Skies RV Park is in the early construction phase which means they're moving dirt. And moving dirt means dust. Yuk! Everything would get a fine layer in a matter of a few hours. We are actually very excited that a small RV park would tackle the largest private photovoltaic installation in the state. Way to go guys! Maybe when we return in April to check on the house they'll have some of the 1,100+ panels installed and working.

Las Cruces, NM

We drove from Santa Fe to Las Cruces for the first stop. Nearly 300 miles which is over our informal limit. Unfortunately, unless you want to stop in ABQ- only 50 miles away- there's nowhere to stop except Socorro and they were rebuilding their water system.

The Las Cruces KOA is a nice park. Yeah, it's dusty from the gravel base, but the view is spectacular and the park is very well maintained. In fact the were in the midst of replacing the decking around the pool while we were there.

I'd been haunting the propane crossover valve/empty tank gauge since Santa Fe. One tank had stopped delivering propane even though it was nearly full. And of course it had to happen on a cold nite when the furnace was cycling a lot. I went to Ferrell Gas before leaving Santa Fe to see about repairing or replacing the tank. One of the staff said the tank was probably fine and that I just needed to change my habits. Seems there's an additional valve inside the Overfill Protection Device which will cause flow to stop if the main valve is opened too quickly. Sounded like BS to me, but what the hell... I'll give it a try. I reinstalled the tank and opened the tank as I always do. Sure enough, the flow stopped and the crossover valve indicated the tank was empty. So I closed the valve, removed the hose then re-installed it. This time I very slowly bled the valve open. Then for 2 days I checked to see if crossover valve still indicated it hadn't switched tanks. So there we were in Las Cruces and... I'll be damned: it's still OK! He was right on the money. So far the tank has been operating just fine and hasn't switched unnecessarily. So here's Lesson #3,417:

Thou shalt always open the valve on a re-filled tank of propane very slowly.

Thank you Ferrell Gas of Santa Fe!

While in Las Cruces we made an emergency trip to Starbucks for coffee beans. Don't want to run low else the Admiral gets nasty in the morning!

Mesilla, AZ

We also took a short drive to Mesilla. It's a small town adjacent to Las Cruces that has had the foresight to preserve it's old plaza area. We spent a little time wandering the area and shops and enjoyed the change of pace from busy traveller to casual tourist. Unfortunately we couldn't try the usual touristy things like fudge and ice cream (yeah, it was that warm!) but we still managed to have a good time not eating.

Loved the look of this small walled compound. Great colors and interesting xeriscape plantings. You see a lot of low water-need plantings in the southwest.

One mishap... a protective filter attached to my favorite Canon lens went for a walk and crashed on the sidewalk. Bummer. Thankfully there was not other damage.

Lordsburg, NM

We were faced with another 300-miler going from Las Cruces to the Tucson area, so this time we broke it up with a midway-stop in Lordsburg. Not much here except a decent restaurant. We didn't eat at Kranberry's this trip, but it's a worthwhile eating place if you pass Lordsburg at mealtime. And Kranberry's has a fair sized parking lot in the back so a motorhome or smaller trailer could make a food stop here before moving on. I believe you would have to approach it from the back street.

The Lordsburg KOA reminded me of Van Horn, TX in a way, but without the corrals, rodeo ring and great on-site restaurant. Not a garden spot but the park is fine and we were well off I-10 so it was quiet.

Benson, AZ

Fred the Gnome in thermal distress!

We ended up in Benson even though I'd hoped to stop at Beaudry RV Resort in Tucson. We knew Beaudry RV sales had gone bankrupt (the Montana dealership is now with Orangewood RV of Phoenix which gives them a presence in Tucson), but since the phone still worked at the resort I thought the park might still be operating. After 8 or more calls I finally gave up (the park is indeed kaput). Then I tried South Forty RV Park which didn't want dogs larger than 20# (maybe they prefer small dogs that bite instead of big dogs that lick?), so that was out. Then several reads on various web sites left me with more questions than answers. So I gave up and opted for KOA again. The Benson KOA isn't a high end park by any stretch (though you wouldn't know it from the price), but the scenery is wonderful, it's a long way from I-10, and since we'd been here before, we knew what to expect. Got a little chiily while we were there. A little frost on the pumpkin... and on Fred the Gnome.

In the roughly 1 year since we were last here, the park seems to have become busier. We pulled in to find perhaps 15 rigs already parked. Last time we were here there was more than one nite when ours was the only rig here (not counting the 10 or more permanent residents at the back of the park). After we arrived we learned the park is providing dinner on Thanksgiving Day (as well as another planned on Christmas). Pretty nice for travelers that are probably not expecting anything!

High Desert Mkt & Deli

Bisbee, AZ

We took a side trip to Bisbee, AZ just to see what it was about. The old town was a great place to explore and we managed to find a primo lunch stop. Hi Desert Market & Cafe has a deli to die for! The food was excellent and compared to Santa Fe it was inexpensive. Well... it's inexpensive if you stay away from dessert! Unfortunately it was more temptation than we could bare so we split a piece of carrot cake. Which was no hardship since each slice is about double the size of anything I've been served before. And their carrot cake recipe adds some apple which was excellent! It's only 40 miles from Benson, so if you're in the area do yourself a favor and head over here for lunch or dinner.

Lavender Pit in Bisbee, AZ

I'd assumed Bisbee was yet another gold or silver mining town. I was only 1/2 right. It's a mining town alright, but it's copper that they were after while gold, silver and turquoise (an oxide of copper) were byproducts from of copper mining. A large open pit mine (Lavender Pit, named after the person who conceived the project) is visible from the side of AZ-80 and there's a pull-off so you can see down into the mine. Open pit mines were tried first in Utah in an attempt to make low-grade ore profitable and it worked here as well. The name "Lavender" has nothing to do with color. The pit is named after Harrison Lavender who was a VP for Phelps Dodge and was in charge of operations when they started mining, You can get a tour of an open pit mine ( Copper Queen Mine) if you're inclined, but the Lavender Pit has been closed since 1974 (to the extent that an open 900 foot deep pit can be called "closed"!).

F-100... I passed these being assembled daily on my first job

Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, AZ

We had hoped to connect with internet acquaintances from Alaska who were staying in the Family Camping facility at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson. The base is right beside the Pima Air & Space Museum which we wanted to see, so access would have been very easy. Unfortunately (thanks to the extra problems we encountered at the house) we weren't able to arrive in time to be brought onto the base for a couple nites as their guests. And since Benson is about 40 miles from Tucson it makes the logistics impossible to get between the Pima museum and Benson to be able to get the dogs out for a walk mid-way thru the visit (Pima has in/out gate privileges). So unless we find another RV park nearby, we'll have to save the air museum for another trip.

At least we were able to meet and visit with Dan and Betty for awhile and see their new (2-days old!) 2011 Montana 3400RL. We thought it was gorgeous but then we should since it seemed to be identical to our own 2010-3400RL which we bought last March. They're on their way to Phoenix next and we'll stay in Benson a little longer since the weather is decent and we want to see more of the area.

SKP Saguaro Co-op

One of our stops here will be at the SKP Saquaro park. This co-op park is affiliated with Escapees RV Club and we want to see what their facility is like. Friends Mike & Susan who we met in Santa Fe are on the waiting list for a long term lease on an available site so we want to see what grabbed them. From the web site it appears the sites are huge... on the order of 2,000 sq. ft. or more.

More coming...

Postcard from New Mexico

2010-11-03T23:11:00.007-07:00

7 August - 3 November 2010
(Santa Fe, NM)

We had an easy drive back to Santa Fe. Unlike the trip North, it's pretty much all down hill getting to Raton, NM. That probably made the truck happier, but it's a real test for trailer and engine brakes. So it was nice to get back to level land again. We pulled into Santa Fe Skies RV Park and were given the space adjacent to where we were before we left for Canada. Great site and it's easy to get into.

Once we were settled in we took a look at the house and confirmed that things are what folks said they are... a mess. There was definitely an electrical problem, so I went back to look at the power drop from PNM (our utility supplier). I couldn't see anything obvious but I did see that the roof in the shop had leaked and the shop smelled like mold. It was really bad!

I called Johnny Bowles who came over. Within 15 minutes he told us that we had no power inside the house cuz we had no power coming from PNM. He gave me a number to call at PNM and said if we still needed him after they got things fixed to call him back. PNM took a couple days, but they repaired what proved to be a broken line. They first had to trim a tree at the rear of the property. Our tree had grown up thru the wires and a wire was rubbing against a branch. The branch won and the wire broke... the wire was literally worn thru. Not just the insulation, but the metal as well.

After that was fixed we got Johnny back to the house and after 2 days of nasty trouble shooting (I've come to hate old adobe houses!) he had us up and running. Seems we had a couple shorts in buried wires that weren't shorted when we left town. Odd, but the problem is fix and the previously shorted wires were re-routed in conduit over the roof. Plus we had him sort out what had become a mess in the conduit after the new roof was installed on the main house in 2006.

The blackened area is the mold

The shop was not so easy. We had our favorite builder (Daniel Tellez) take a look and he cut a hole in the ceiling to confirm that there was mold damage. Once more wallboard on the ceiling was cut away I could see what was causing the problem. It turned out to be coming from a poorly sealed area at the canale (the troughs that allow the roof to drain). The roofer who installed the foam roof said it was a bunch of holes caused by bees and sent a bill for repairs. Some warranty, but both the warranty and the leaks are about what I've been told to expect. Welcome to the real world, Bruce!

Same area after remediation

We got an well known mold repair company (Paul Davis Inc., a Canadian company) to clean up the mold. Took several days, but when they were done it looked like new wood.

Then Daniel took over and installed new insulation & wallboard in the damaged areas, painted the walls and installed a new TPO roof. The material is white and seems nearly bullet proof so I have high hopes. We'll see.

The north wall; south wall had even more

Not only is the odor from the mold gone, the shop looks like new again. Especially after new epoxy paint was applied to the floor. Plus Daniel did some repairs to the outside stucco which made everything look right again. Almost looks good enough to live in! :) (We're not living in the house... we prefer the Montana.) With more time we would have been able to get the house on the market, but we're running into the limit of days we're permitted to be in the state without reverting to NM residency.

As I was saying goodbye to Daniel in the car port, he casually asked "Do you want me to do anything about these posts?" Turns out the 10" diameter posts which support the car port were hollow. Yikes! Because of a combination of building errors (6" beam on top of a 4" corbel on top of a 10" post), water could collect on the top of the posts and rot started in the end-grain. It had been going on for years and no one could see it. It was only because Daniel knew what could happen with that combination that we were saved from having the carport collapse on the car while we were gone. So Daniel replaced the posts (square 6" this time) and the corbels (also 6") plus he repaired the posts and corbels of the front portal (the 'porch' at the front door). Thank you Daniel for once again saving our butts!

While still in Santa Fe, they had their annual Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque. We'd planned on visiting one night, but as often happens they had excessive winds and had to cancel the evening's 'balloon glow' or 'glow-deo'. But at least we got to see some of the crowd. Santa Fe Skies gets overflow from Albuquerque and the park was full every night starting a week ahead and continuing till the week after Balloon Fiesta. They have 98 sites and one night they had 105 guests. It was chaos. Orderly chaos if there is such a thing, but chaos. Then one night the temps dropped to freezing and within 3 days they were all gone. Poof! Now we're seeing mostly Canadians heading south.

We'll leave for Arizona soon. We have an invite to join a USAF retiree at Davis-Monthan AFB (near Tucson, AZ) for a couple days and we'd like to take him up on the offer. As I understand it, Davis-Monthan is where the USAF 'bone yard' is located. I've been hearing about it for decades (as early as 1957 when I was a student at Northrop Aero Institute in Inglewood, CA) so I'd love to have a look-see.

Our truck will be serviced tomorrow and the car shortly thereafter; we've seen doctors and dentists while here; gotten prescriptions refilled; we'll get hair cuts tomorrow; and we're pretty much ready to head West. That's assuming we can still figure out how to connect to the truck!

Postcard from Colorado

2010-08-07T22:24:00.004-07:00

5-7 August 2010

Today was a l-o-n-g drive. It took us from Cheyenne, WY through Denver, which is never a good thing even before the commute, and then south. But we plowed thru all the I-25 landmarks as we headed south of Pueblo to Colorado City. Once again Mr. Garmin had his head buried where the sun don't shine, but we eventually got it sorted and arrived at the KOA which is on the east side of I-25, not the west, thank you very much.

Not much here so a 2-niter might seem a waste. But we were tired after the ugly drive and we were stalling because of what was waiting for us in Santa Fe. But we did take advantage of the extra day and do some sight seeing around the spread-out town and West into the hills along CO-165. Nice drive. We even stopped at "the castle" which might have been fun if we didn't have to listen to the nut case that was the owner/builder. He spouted off in a constant diatribe about any axe he had to grind. But it's his place and we didn't have to be there. And the castle is a huge project for one person.

The scenery along CO-165 was great with some open meadow areas used for cattle. This is looking back toward Colorado City with the Great Plains beyond. For whatever reason I have a hard time realizing that Colorado (and New Mexico for that matter) border the plains. There's a similar view from Las Vegas, NM.

The local restaurant was fine and not expensive. Just don't order anything with green chile expecting it to be green because it's red. But that's their recipe and they're stickin' to it. Since I had my gall bladder removed in 2002 I've become less and less tolerant of spicey food and at this point I've given up. So I kept to run-of-the-mill diner food and was very happy with dinner.

Postcard from Wyoming

2010-08-05T19:04:00.007-07:00

3-5 August 2010
(Cheyenne, WY)

We had an easy though boring drive to Cheyenne, WY via the Interstate. The KOA in Cheyenne is a little east of town and looks very isolated. Needs some trees to break up the wind but fortunately wind was not an issue while we were there. One quick look around you is all it takes to recall that Cheyenne borders the Great Plains.

We stopped for 2 nites so we could have a chance to look around and get some rest before the next leg thru Colorado. I tried to like Cheyenne, but driving in the town was a pain in the butt. People drive like they're in LA except they aren't any good at it! Of course I need to remind myself that I'm an old fart now, so maybe that's the issue. My reaction to Cheyenne was immensely dissimilar from what I've felt in any other Wyoming town, even Casper which I've always thought of as an oil town. Of course it is on the Interstate, so maybe that has something to do with it.

Cheyenne had had a competition among local artists that required decorating an 8 foot tall boot. All are originals and some really interesting creations. The one Celia is leaning against used painted images while the one with the diamonds has recorded the names and dates of service of the former governors on Wyoming. And I doubt anyone is going to steal these multi-hundred pound behemoths!

We went down to the train depot which has been restored. We'd heard about the decorated 8' tall boots painted by guest artists so we had to have a look. They were fun and we got a few pictures plus I got a T-shirt at the depot. Then we stuck our heads into The Wrangler- a Western wear and boot shop. Fun to look but we're max'ed out on weight so there's no sense breaking out a credit card!

The KOA is located very near a truck stop, so diesel is no sweat. The trouble with truck stops, though, is that they carry cheap DVDs. So I had to have a look and once more I carried away a gem... along with another 2 that were a waste of $$$ and never made it out of Wyoming.

Off to South Colorado tomorrow.

Postcard from Nebraska

2010-08-03T17:29:00.006-07:00

31 July - 2 August 2010
(Gretna, NE)

We left Clear L and had a long drive to the KOA in W Omaha (Gretna), NE. It's an old KOA and we ended up under a beautiful old oak tree with about a 15% grade where we had to pull out. I'm serious as a heart attack: 15%. Yikes! Parking the rig wasn't bad as the site was level where the trailer sat. But at the point the truck was pointed down the exit path it was s-t-e-e-p. So when it came time to hitch up it was a case of backing the truck up under the overhang and hope I snagged the king pin.

We did the usual shopping thing here plus we managed to find a Starbucks. We'd been feeling very deprived so we needed a fix and some more Verona beans. Diesel was easy when that chore rolled around.

I managed to get connected without a problem. The B&W hitch articulates enough that I was able to connect with only a lot of worry and no real problem. Off we went to N. Platte.

2-3 August 2010
(N Platte, NE)

We stopped at Holiday RV Park in N Platte, our second stay here. It was a one-niter and, if you recall our previous whine, we definitely ate at home that nite!

The next day we were off to Cheyenne, WY.

Postcard from Iowa

2010-07-31T17:41:00.006-07:00

30-31 July 2010
(Clear Lake, IA)

Flood control a little west of La Crosse

We left Hixton, WI with threatening cloud cover and it only got worse. Sometime after La Crosse the heavens opened up and the rig got a bath. Would have been fine if it weren't that the water hitting it was dirty: we were in the midst of some serious construction work.

Our stop this day was at Cedar Lake, IA for a one-niter. We stayed at Oakwood RV Park which had very easy pull thru sites. We're close to 60' when the trailer is connected, so if we didn't have to go after diesel I could have stayed connected for the nite. It was $28/nite with the cash discount, otherwise it was $30/nite. Not bad. For whatever reason, Celia was happy to be gone from here... ???

One problem. The access road looks like a war zone. The big rigs have really torn it up. When we tried to find the park, however, got a little screwed up because Mr. Garmin's directions were a little screwed up. We ended up arriving from the wrong direction which turned out to be the best direction... we missed all the pot holes. Well... until I drove out to fuel-up!

Tomorrow we're off to Nebraska.

Postcard from Wisconsin

2010-07-30T16:36:00.005-07:00

26-27 July 2010
(Chain o' Lakes, WI)

Great pizza!

Our stop at Chain o' Lakes KOA was a one-niter. It's all dirt/sand, but is so much nicer than our stay at Manistique we didn't whine. The surroundings are a beautiful rustic approach that works very well in this very woodsy area. Btw, this is the first KOA we've found that recycles!

The dogs had a great time walking new territory which included access to one of the lakes in the chain (28 lakes in the chain I think?). We hiked down to the launch ramp but our timing was terrible as we managed to become dinner for the mosquitoes. But it's a beautiful campground with great trees (conifers) and lots of signs reminding people to drive slowly to keep down the dust. By and large it seems to work as most followed the instructions.

We got into Eagle River (the nearby town) and had dinner at Butch's Pizza. Fantastic! If you stop in Eagle R you really need to think about this place for lunch or dinner. Great pizza!

We tanked up and were on our way to Alma Center/Hixton KOA the next morning.

27-30 July 2010

Hixton/Alma Center, WI KOA.

Hixton KOA was a one-nighter so we could rest a bit and shop for a few things. The KOA is right between the 2 towns... about 3 miles either direction. But if you want more than what you would expect at a 7-11, then you have to plan on 15-20 miles to Black River Falls.

This KOA is amazing. The grounds are immaculate. I had the feeling of staying in the front yard of a mansion. There were expansive lawns, trimmed shrubbery, everything well cared for. Loved it, and enjoyed touring the immediate area. Went to Bruce's Mound and left wondering: what the hell is a mound!? There were other "mounds" in the area, whatever they are. My guess is they are small hills, but... ??? If you know, please share.

This is an Amish area and we saw several of their farms. The coolest was one with wheat (or some grains) stacked in sheaves. And we happened to see the occasional horse draw wagon. I resisted the urge to get out the camera since the Admiral threatened to break it over my head if I didn't respect their privacy. Convincing argument!

We were up bright and early on the 29th, hitched up, disconnected water and sewer, and pulled out. Ummm, yeah. Well... we (I!) forgot to disconnect the power cable. This cord is over 1" in diameter and you would think I could remember something that big. But no... I pulled out without a clue.

We stopped at a rest stop near a set of locks around La Crosse, WI. After a break I was walking back to the rig and saw the yellow power plug still plugged into the rear connector. And there was no cable in sight. Oh crap! I figured it was a goner. And I feared we would have a sizable repair bill fixing their power pylon. But that wasn't case: the Admiral called the park and learned the pylon was fine. The only problem was the wires had been pulled out of the connector without breaking anything. So instead of heading to a Camping World we headed back to Hixton and stayed another night at the KOA so I could repair the cable (less than 5 minutes work).

So after a 3rd night at this wonderful park we really did manage our escape!

Postcard from Michigan

2010-07-26T16:35:00.002-07:00

Mare catchup... almost there!

25-26 July 2010

Maybe it was the fact we had to go home and didn't want to, but the Manistique KOA on the upper peninsula was probably the worst stop we've made so far. It's part of a motel and the restroom facilities for campers are inside. The Admiral says they were a disaster, so I avoided going near. Our 30-A campsite was so-so after adding a leveling board, but the breaker was defective and tripped several times even though we limited our electrical usage to less than 30-A. Plus our rig was probably a little bigger than expected in the site so getting out was a white knuckle affair. We made it after a couple tries... about 1/4" to spare getting past the pylon. Keep in mind I'm new at this, so maybe it was just me.

Couldn't wait to get going to Eagle River, WI in the morning!

Postcard from Ontario

2010-07-25T16:20:00.005-07:00

12-15 July 2010
(Thunder Bay, ON)

We made it to the border as early as I could manage (did I mention we're really, really slow to get going?!) and went thru the border crossing without a hitch. Remember the precaution of getting an International Health Certificate for the dogs? It made us feel prepared, but the border official was uninterested. He asked if we had proof of rabies vaccinations for both dogs (it's listed on the form), but he didn't even want to see it... just wanted to make sure we had it in case we were asked for it. That was probably $60 per dog that was wasted for the physical exam and form, but we followed the instructions on their site and that's what I understood they wanted. Go figure.

Remember our preparations the night before? where we threw out all the remaining produce and meat? That was the right thing to do. When we entered Canada the only thing they asked about was potatoes, but in talking to others apparently the items of greatest concern change with the wind. So getting rid of it was probably OK. And it left us stocked with fresh-everything when we finally headed north out of Thunder Bay.

We again stayed at a KOA and the one at Thunder Bay is a great choice. It was big enough that it made it great for walking the dogs (they get bored with the same old walk) and there was a lot of up/down so the exercise was good for us too. The best part was there was a dog run the was big. The loved it and ran their butts off each nite.

We were introduced to Canadian TV programming and, since we seldom watch regular US programming anymore, it was something of a treat. Among other niceties was a new show called Doyle's Republic and we got hooked. We were able to see 3 or 4 episodes, but now we want to see more and there's no way. Guess we're going to have to come back!

We were able to do the shopping needed to get us around the north shore of L Superior. In fact, we found a Safeway in Thunder Bay (only the 2nd Safeway we've seen since we left California in 2003).

We also went to WalMart and inquired about pre-paid phones. Our Alltel/Verizon phones were going to cost a bundle to get authorized for international use. The manager at the WalMart spent a lot of time with us telling us about the options, but suggested that we wait till we got further east as long distance rate were based upon the region where you buy the phone. If we waited for Sault Ste. Marie she thought we could save significant charges when using the phone to call ahead for reservations plus we weren't going to find cell coverage along the north shore. Made sense and we appreciated her candid explanation. In fact the kindness we received was repeated over and over our whole time in Canada.

Kakabeka Falls

Kakabeka Falls, just W of Thunder Bay, ON

We took one day and drove to Kakabeka Falls. We'd heard from friends Mike & Susan that it was a must-see if we were ever in the area and they were right. It was beautiful and the walkways were setup for viewing. Especially great for photographers.

Trying to get a drink (!) at Kakabeka Falls

We had the dogs with us, of course, which got a little exciting at times as I was trying to take a few pictures while someone would come up to ask about the dogs and to get in a few pats. Kelly is a little reserved but Annie loves the attention and will usually roll onto her back for a few belly rubs from her newest best friend. I'd be pointing my camera toward the falls and suddenly I'd have a view of the sky and on my way to a prat fall. But it was fun and Celia would usually be able to save the day.

We had a reality check in TB. I started noticing that, even considering any advantage in the exchange rate (less than 4% at the time), the prices for food & household items in Canada- stuff you'd buy at WalMart- were (and I'm sure still are) 10%-20% higher than in the US before you consider taxes. Restaurants were even worse... maybe 30%. We knew that fuel prices were going to be higher... been that way forever. Maybe they balance budgets thru cheaper rents or lower property prices. Dunno as we never had the chance to compare those prices.

15-17 July 2010
(Neys PP)

Along the hwy to Neys PP

When we'd finally convinced ourselves we were restocked, we left Thunder Bay for Neys Provincial Park following the west and then north shores of L Superior. Provincial parks are roughly equivalent to a state park in the US and our experience suggests that the provinces work harder at keeping them natural (no cutting wood, no picking up down-wood, etc.). They also keep the camp sites as natural as possible which can make it difficult to park in the site if you're a putz like me. Neys was our introduction to the PPs and what an introduction it was.

What a view of L Superior!

I'd found a web site that allows a visitor to make reservations on line. It took a lot of fiddling but I managed to find a pull-thru site with 30A hydro. I don't know about the other provincial parks in Ontario, but Neys didn't have sewer connections at any site. They do have dump stations so was going to be high-end dry camping: water and power, no sewer. Our site was facing the shore of L Superior and provided a view of the lake worthy enough to grace a poster. What a spectacular camp site.

The ranger that checked us in suggested pulling in opposite the normal direction so we could have the view thru our rear window. I eye-balled it, but it appeared that the 2 trees standing as sentinels at the entrance to the site were going to keep that from happening. Bummer. It was a great suggestion. It took some fussing but we eventually got situated and had a comfortable site.

The beach across from our camp site

Dogs are not allowed on the beach (another bummer!) which really limited what we could do. However, we were able to use the trails without restriction so we could hike.

Hiking required some caution. Ontario (and perhaps other provinces) is having a problem with invasive growth of Giant Hog Weed. The plant, originally from China, can be highly toxic and under the right circumstances has caused blindness. Our first walk near our campground found us dodging around a half dozen of these big nasties.

Our neighbor's rig

A neighbor at Neys told us that Thunder Bay didn't exist before 1970. In that year the adjoining cities of Port Arthur and Fort William merged their resources and became the city of Thunder Bay. Turns out he was a retired policeman from TB and a fountain of information for newbies like us.

We enjoyed our 2 nights in Neys - it was all I could manage to get and we wanted more! - but had to pull out of the best RV site ever made. We headed up the road about 50 miles to White Lake PP for another 2-nighter.

Wild flowers at Neys PP

I believe this was the landing area for brining in prisoners of war during WW-II

Sunset on the N shore of L Superior

17-19 July 2010
(White Lake PP)

Dense woods at our White L PP site

While Neys PP is on L Superior and situated with the shore as the focus, White Lake PP is very secluded with the camp sites obscured and no view of the lake it's named for unless you hike to the shore. White L is more rustic & woodsy than Neys with tall trees and low brush around each site. Our site had the same amenities as we found at Neys, but the hydro was further away. The power pylons seemed to be sprinkled without regard for where the camp sites are located. [ Sadly the many photos I took at White L PP seem to have vanished into the hungry bowels of my computer. This after-sunset shot is all I can offer. ]

Thanks to the seemingly random placement of the pylons, we struggled when it came time to connect since our power cord was only 25' and we needed about 60'. A neighbor helped us get situated and when he heard about our power dilemma, he immediately went digging for his 30-A extension. That proved to be too short, so we decided to just use a 15-A connection and string together however many cords we needed. A short while later he was back with yet another 30-A extension, this one from a friend of his that was camped up the road a bit. So with our 25' 50-A cable and 30-A/50-A adapter plus their two 30-A cables we were able to get connected. We were really taken aback by their kindness and willingness to help a couple old toots they'd never seen before and would likely not meet again. Wow! Thanks guys.

It turned out that most of the folks we saw at White L PP are locals who spend their weekends at the park. Their sites are chosen as part of a Spring lottery. While their rigs are all movable, they generally don't move further than the site they get assigned the next season. Since they had to be back at work come Monday, by Sunday evening things were really quiet. Families packed up the leftovers and the dirty laundry and headed home till the following weekend. There were perhaps 50 campsites in our immediate area with no more than 5 families in residence Sunday nite even though 45 of the 50 sites had a rig parked. (I recall a time when you could do this sort of thing at Yosemite in California... but that's ancient history!)

I asked one camper what the primary employment was in the area and he said most people work for the gold mine. He had a 2-hr drive to get home and left about 7 PM to catch some sleep before getting to work at 6 AM the next morning. He and his wife still took time to be gracious hosts as we chatted inside their (portable) screen room.

We could only get these 4 nights camping at 2 provincial parks. The parks are popular and booked pretty much to the max during the good-weather season. Plus many of the parks are small or have confined roads and can't accommodate our size rig. But we enjoyed what we could get, returned the borrowed power cables, and headed out for Sault Ste. Marie the next day.

19-25 July 2010
(Sault Ste. Marie)

Entrance at KOA Sault Ste. Marie

We made reservations at the KOA in Sault Ste. Marie before we left Thunder Bay as we knew we wouldn't have internet access while we were on the N Shore of L Superior. It was a good thing too as the park is very busy, it's beautiful, and it's popular. There were weekenders and a few long term renters, but about half were like us: just passing thru. The park has lots of very tall trees to provide shade with just the right amount of filtered light to keep the grass growing and make it note seem too dark.

The office building

The owners had just recently purchased the park and were working hard to make sure everything was done right. They already have an off-leash area, but they hoped to expand it soon to several times its current size. Yee haw! Annie & Kelly are going to love that.

Sault Ste. Marie is where we decided to get the pre-paid phones which we did. Back to WalMart since we had gotten such knowledgeable advice there when in Thunder Bay. Well, the advice wasn't as good, but thanks to the previous help we knew what was going on and bought the phones. I managed to get one set up right away. We needed to make reservations in Barrie & Parry Sound as we got ourselves on the way to visit with Doug & Pat of home-made-doughnut fame, as well Glen & Dale who were our neighbors in Clewiston, FL.

Then I called Verizon to get voice mail messages and what should I find but 3 messages from our alarm company... never a good sign. Protection One was having trouble accessing the alarm to do their test of the system and wanted us to know so we could schedule a tech for repair. We called the person who was checking our house occasionally and I happened to reach her while she was there. Perfect timing, but the news wasn't so good. Turns out there was a power problem. Some lights were working, but everything in the kitchen was dead including the appliances. Oh joy.

Then we called friends who are familiar with the house pretty well in order to get a 2nd opinion and an objective look at what the problem might be. They ran thru pretty much every circuit and found the ones that were alive and of those that were dead they all had tripped GFIs which wouldn't reset. So with that choice bit of info we had a couincil meeting. The consensus was we needed to go home. Not a good news day.

We dragged our feet another couple days, taking a walking tour of the waterfront area of Sault Ste. Marie. The replica of BOUNTY was there and we dodged around more goose-poop than I've ever seen in my life. The dogs had no issue with it... they think goose-poop is an hors d'hourve!

Sault Ste. Marie waterfront

The HMS BOUNTY replica

The BOUNTY again

In the US what this tourist is looking at would be called a 'dolphin striker'. Dunno what the Royal Navy thought to call it!

Our Sault Ste. Marie KOA camp site... nice!

View past the DIY rig-washing site

The large-group open area

More of Sault Ste. Marie KOA

But eventually there was no choice but to pull the plug and get moving southwest. I called and cancelled all the just-made reservations and we moved back across the border. An
d what an experience that was

Postcard from Minnesota

2010-07-11T23:26:00.003-07:00

7-8 July 2010
(Moorhead, MN)

We headed north on I-29 to Fargo, ND (remember the movie? it wasn't even in Fargo!), then turned across the river to Moorhead, MN. It was a grey ride with only a little light rain. We were pretty happy about that as there had been some nasty T-storms across the region the night before. They missed Sioux Falls but clobbered the area we were driving thru. Neither of us had been very happy seeing the Tornado Watch pop up on the bottom of the TV screen with a list of affected counties. Apparently no tornados formed that night and we were out of the region before new T-storm activity could start that afternoon.

I'd made a reservation for the night at the KOA in Moorhead. It was a challenge getting there as there was major construction going on and we missed the correct turn the first time. After we got to the site I realized I wasn't in what I'd requested on line. In fact, when I got the confirmation it was for a lesser price than the site I'd selected. When I asked at the office I was told what they gave us was all that was available. The site was nothing but 2 muddy ruts and would have taken more than the 2 boards we carry to get the coach level; it had 30 Amp power instead of 50 Amp; and there was no sewer connection. When we looked around at the rest of the park we realized it had probably been underwater for awhile. So, since I hadn't unhitched, it was no big deal to pull out of the site and leave.

We stopped on the road in front while I called a golf/RV resort in Detroit Lakes, MN and found a space for the nite. The resort turned out to be a very upscale park directed at golfers, but they made sites available for transients to keep the occupancy max'ed out. Most of the sites are deeded (privately owned) and all were perfectly landscaped. We were in the newest section which was furthest from the clubhouse... it was perfect for us non-golfers. It was a showplace. Gorgeous.

8-11 July 2010
(Detroit Lakes, MN)

Diesel was a challenge at Detroit Lakes. I must have driven 15 miles, most of it in circles, before I spotted diesel at a Sinclair station. With that done the nite before, we were away early and headed for the general area of Duluth, MN to the town of Cloquet, MN.

Enjoying the view (but not the heat!)

Overlook at the Welcome Center

It was a pleasant drive to Cloquet thru rolling, wooded country side. We even found a great lunch stop beside a lake. The park was another older KOA which mostly serves weekender clientele. Our timing was unfortunate as our stay overlapped the weekend and we had to move for the last nite. But there was a WalMart and other shopping nearby and we found a place with very good pizza for our nite out.

Duluth street fair

Some folks were actually (aarrgh!) working

We drove into Duluth and found there was a street fair going on in the older downtown area. We wandered thru and the dogs drew a lot of attention. Most people find old retirees like us pretty much invisible, but dog lovers will ever ignore our dogs. We end up meeting a lot of new people who would normally pass us by with no more than a nod.

...and this is the old guy himself

Lief Ericson Park...

Amazing gardens at the park

Getting out of Duluth turned out to be a challenge. I-35 was all torn up and we had the devil's own time finding the detour. I stared holes in the map trying to get oriented (it was a highway map and lacked detail), but eventually I spotted enough landmarks that we managed to connect to MN-61 which follows the West shore of L. Superior.

11-12 July 2010
(Grand Marais, MN)

The Admiral spotted a pie shop on the way to Grand Marais, MN, but traffic was heavy and by the time I spotted parking adequate for us I was past the entrance with no way to turn around. So the Captain was in deep doo-doo. The road is a little tight with a few miles of construction and some potholes to avoid, so I was pretty busy staying out of trouble. All-in-all the road was fine all the way to Grand Marais, especially when I spotted another pie shop on the outskirts of Grand Marais. Hallelujah! I am saved!

Grand Marais City Park

Lots of space to walk

Grand Marais, MN is a gem. We stayed at the city park and enjoyed the stop immensely. It's right on the shore of L Superior and is a beautiful setting. The next time we come this way we'll know to get reservations well ahead and enjoy the area for awhile. The town goes out of the way to attract tourists- both US & Canadian- and there was a lot to see with just a little strolling. I understand they put on a great fireworks display for the 4th.

Grand Marais Harbor entrance

We did a little prep'ing before heading to the border in the morning. We off loaded everything that was fresh food per the instructions on Canada's web site associated with imports.

We got an early start (for us!), walked the dogs, dumped more garbage, then drove the 30 or so miles to the Canadian border, much of the drive along the lake shore.

Postcard from South Dakota

2010-07-07T00:13:00.006-07:00

Nice easy site in Kennebec KOA

27-29 June 2010
(Kennebec, SD)

The drive from N. Platte to the KOA in Kennebec, SD was pretty amazing. We used US-83 which is all 2-lane road which took us through beautiful rolling hills, the Rosebud Sioux Reservation and finally to I-90 and on to Kennebec. It's a very narrow road but it's lightly traveled and the scenery is spectacular. Farm equipment can be a problem as happened as we left N Platte. It had been raining a lot (we saw flooding on a lot of the farm land) so everything was green.

On-site lunch & dinner if burgers & 'dogs are OK

Office & food barn

Lots of grain elevators around here!

The owners at the KOA were originally from Maine (how appropriate they should buy a KOA park in Kennebec, SD!) and work hard to keep folks happy. The town is very small so we were happy that they offer on-site hamburgers or hot dogs at lunch & dinner. We took the grand tour thru town and were back at the park in about 20 minutes. There is a small bar & steakhouse in town, so it's not without what a traveler needs.

29 June-7 July 2010
(Sioux Falls, SD)

The falls Sioux Falls is named for

Sioux Falls, especially in the immediate area of the falls, is gorgeous. However our first few nights were spent well East of town at Jelly Stone RV Park. As you can imagine from the name, it's a (very!) family oriented park. So they were booked for the 4th of July holiday as much as a year ahead. We had to get out on 2 July so we headed back toward town to the KOA. Both parks are adjacent to I-90 but the KOA is noisier if you aren't in the area with trees. We weren't. On the plus side, this KOA has a decent size play area for pets, so we enjoyed it more than Jelly Stone.

We were in Sioux Falls with a mission: our truck & RV were already registered in South Dakota, but we had to get our driver's licenses and arrange for insurance. So we got to it immediately. We stopped at Alternative Resources to make sure there wasn't some secret password we needed to know, then we walked the 60-70 yards to the small and very busy office. Getting our DLs was quick as by some miracle we got to the office at a lull. By the time we left there was probably a 1.5-2 hour wait. They asked if we were RVers ("yes"), if we had a receipt from the RV park ("yes"), and did the receipt have both names on it ("yes"). You need these three "yeses" or you're not going to be a happy camper. Since RV parks in the area know the requirements, it shouldn't be a big deal to get registration folks at the park to enter all the names for those getting DLs.

We buzzed thru the process except for registering to vote. They wouldn't let us do that because we had a mail forwarding address. Other than voter registration, we walked out with shiney new licenses declaring us residents of South Dakota. We thought we were going to have a problem, so we asked Alternative Resources about registering to vote. They said they could take care of it for us and Presto! It was done. And we know it was done properly since we received our absentee ballots and voted.

We talked to the insurance broker adjacent to Alternative Resources and mentioned on their site. It's named Dougherty Associates and Jim Dougherty happen to also own the building where both offices are located. He did the usual survey of prices and we ended up saving a substantial amount compared to Progressive who previously had our RV plus our 2 vehicles covered. We were happy with the coverage they provided us and also managed to get an umbrella policy which no one else was able to offer.

After I dropped the trailer on the bed-saver and mashed the cable back in March, we started having progressively more trouble getting the landing gear to operate long enough to get any meaningful lift before it would cut out; lowering wasn't a problem. I tried to use the manual crank a couple times but you would have to be really, really desperate to use that approach. So while we were in Sioux Falls we contacted the local Montana dealer (Schaap's RV Traveland) and asked for help. The service manager worked us in and 2 hours later the landing gear were working properly plus I didn't have to ask them to do the recall inspection related to the sealant used for roof penetrations (everything was OK). Very impressed! The electrical problem turned out to be a faulty thermal breaker in the landing gear/stabilizers circuit. All is well again.

The walk along the river front at the falls.

We took one afternoon to go to the falls so I could play with the camera awhile. Not an easy thing to do since we had the dogs in tow. But we spent some time around these spectacular falls and very much appreciated their beauty. We saw more than one NWS flood warning yet there was no evidence where the flooding could be occurring (??). The downtown and South part of town all looked to be without damage, so there's more to it than we could understand in our brief visit.

The crowds at the falls were pretty impressive. Even had a wedding party that came there for their photo session. The photographer saw may camera and positioned himself between me and the bride. Must have thought I was a friend of the family trying to cut into his work. And I was in the standard RV uniform: old jeans, faded T-shirt and deck shoes. Oops!

The holiday brought everyone out to play, take photos

Train loaded with holiday tourists... went this as far, then backed up

By the time 7 July rolled around we were ready to be on the road again. We were headed for Canada by way of Minnesota and L Superior. We were going to head North on I-29 to Fargo, ND, then turn East to Moorhead, MN for the night.

Postcard from Nebraska

2010-06-26T23:32:00.002-07:00

26-27 June 2010
(North Platte, NE)

This 1-niter was at Holiday RV Park. It's an older park that is filled every night. We arrived early and got settled before the rush. Gets pretty crazy when there are several rigs trying to get connected for the night.

The South Platte River runs thru the town of North Platte (huh?), so there were a lot of mosquitoes (remember that to our minds, even one mosquito is a lot!). But we dealt with it which means we whined as much as the mosquitoes did.

We ate at Penny's Diner very near the park thinking "How bad can they screw up a hamburger?" Sadly I can answer that question: what I had was probably a hockey puck in a former life. I'm sure because it was about the right size and it was hard as a rock. It had signs of having been on the grill which was probably done to hide the NHL logo in the steel center. Celia had a milk shake which turned out to be very good, but yours truly can't have dairy. That hockey-puck burger gave me something extra to whine about besides mosquitoes! Our advice... don't have anything at Penny's besides the milkshake.

N Platte is a fair sized farming community and we were able to do some restocking plus make a run to Walgreens. We were off to Kennebec, SD the next morning.

Postcard from Kansas

2010-06-25T23:18:00.004-07:00

24-26 June 2010
(Goodland, KS)

All the ladies out for a walk

KOA in Goodland, KS. Very well cared for.

It was an easy drive from La Junta, CO to Goodland in Kansas and took us on a tour of the area's farmland. The KOA in Goodland turned out to be a small but nice campground. The owner's wife did some cooking for guests and you could order what she had on the limited menu for that nite and it would be delivered to your site at a time of your choosing. Plus she was up early to cook breakfast as well. I thought "Yeah, sure" till I saw that she offered biscuits & gravy. Yikes! I might have to live here!

Old country recipe for stuffed cabbage... to die for!

Our one-niter turned into 2 nites. Then during the 2nd nite Celia came down with a bug. I asked for a 3rd night but unfortunately it was a Saturday and this KOA was booked. By 9:00 AM the Admiral was feeling better, so she thought it would be OK to push on. We made a couple stops along side the road (nice to have your outhouse with you!), but mostly she did fine. Pretty soon we were in North Platte, NE.

Postcard from Colorado

2010-06-23T23:14:00.003-07:00

23-24 June 2010
(La Junta, CO)

On 23 June we disconnected at Santa Fe Skies RV Park and launched for Colorado & eventually Canada. I'd planned to stop for the night in Trinidad, CO, but when we got there it didn't look promising. The addresses I'd written down seemed to be motels that might allow RVs in their parking lot for $$$. Not what we were looking for so we moved on to the KOA in La Junta, CO. It turned out to be a great drive taking us via state highways thru the Colorado Grassland Reserve.

La Junta is 100% farming town. They were irrigating throughout the area and the irrigation ditch running past the park, about 50 feet from our site, was full to the top and moving slowly. Of course that meant mosquitoes. Oh joy. We had thought we'd at least be OK thru Colorado but that wasn't going to happen.

Diesel wasn't easy to find but when I did I was a happy camper: the price was about 25 cents/gal cheaper than New Mexico. We also spotted a WalMart but didn't need a stop there. So this is a decent stop.

La Junta was a one-niter and we were away the next morning for Goodland, KS.

Postcard from New Mexico- 2

2010-06-22T22:21:00.002-07:00

3 April to 22 June 2010
(Santa Fe, NM)

Had to have a fire before we left town I guess

We had a lot of chores to take care of while we were in Santa Fe. Taxes, of course, plus doctor/dentist appointments; exams for the dogs; health certificates for the dogs; and there was the issue of what was to be our residency.

Lots of wonderful sunsets in Santa Fe

We settled on South Dakota as it's an RV friendly state and most importantly it has a considerate attitude toward RVers when it comes to jury duty. Though I've served only once, I'd been called too many times in Santa Fe county and had concluded the only way to make it stop was to die or move. I chose the latter.

As I perceive it, the jury pool isn't populated with every person that probably meets the requirements to serve (registered voters, licensed drivers and property owners). Rather it consists of only those same people that have been previously called & vetted. They keep calling the same people over and over and only replenish the pool when someone becomes ineligible. The pool is large so it's not like you get called every week. But if you've made plans for a vacation, you must be excused from jury duty by a judge... the jury pool manager can't do it. If we're to travel, probably full time, I see no other alternative than to change our residency.

We signed up with Alternative Resources and then used their services for registering the RV and the truck. I left the Highlander registered in NM since we leave it in the carport except when we come back to check on the house. The process was very smooth and fast. The only inconvenient part is getting our driver's licenses since that has to be done in person. Voting is done by absentee ballot and as an RVer you are restricted to non-local candidates. This latter limitation seems appropriate as there's no way, for instance, we can make a reasonable judgment about school board elections.

We also got our passports renewed which turned out to be not so time consuming as I'd feared. We did pay the expedited service fee and had the replacements in hand in about a month. But it was really important to not leave it to the last minute. Since New Mexico driver's licenses aren't accepted as proof of citizenship anywhere, it was important that we have them to get our South Dakota driver's license and to cross the border to Canada.

Eventually we made our way thru the list(s!) and were finally ready to leave for Canada. We'd decided to follow the western shore of L Superior, enter Canada at Thunder Bay, Ontario, then go around the North shore of Superior and down to Sault Ste. Marie (soo saint marie). There are provincial parks along the route so it sounded very inviting.

After the North shore our plan was to continue East thru Canada till we got to the Maritime provinces, then turn South thru Maine to see the grand kids. After that we would work our way South to Florida for the winter season.

We thought it sounded like a great plan.

Postcard from New Mexico

2010-04-03T15:45:00.002-07:00

31 March to 3 April 2010
(Las Cruces, NM)

We like the KOA in Las Cruces: it's well maintained and has a lovely view of the city and surrounding mountains. Plus Las Cruces has all the necessities an RV'er needs: a WalMart.

We planned on another one-niter, but a forecast of strong winds came up, so we hunkered down for 3 nights instead of 1. The wind the next day was horrible! There was so much dust in the air it obliterated the mountains across the valley. I couldn't even see the cultivated farmland at the base of the hill where the park is located. The 3rd night turned out to be unnecessary and we finally got on our way Saturday 3 April.

3 April - ... 2010
(Santa Fe, NM)

I decided to make it in one leg and we drove straight thru to Santa Fe Skies RV Park rather than take a one-night stop in Albuquerque. Not really a problem since I'd had 3 days to rest.

We arrived at the park and took a site in the bull pen... the transient area with the pull-thru sites. After the 2nd week it was clear we needed to make a change to a long term site (a back-in site). With the guidance of the park owner I got into the site with a strong sense that I'd never have made it without his help. We had a great view of the Sangre de Cristos mountains to the East and a view out over the mesa to the Southeast. This was home for a couple months.

Postcard from Texas

2010-03-31T15:17:00.003-07:00

24-26 March 2010
(Conroe, TX)

We had an easy drive to Conroe, TX... it helped having been here before. Garmin directions are useless but this time we arrived from the East and had no trouble spotting the KOA sign.

Conroe KOA (N of Houston about 50-60 miles) is a high-end facility but I hate staying here. Last time we had the landing gear replaced on our previous Montana, so I was planning on just a single night here so we could leave before Murphy found us again. No joy.

The next morning we hooked up. I was rushing to get away and sadly, "the hamburger was not in the bun", (the king pin wasn't safely located between the jaws of the hitch). I pulled forward to test the trailer brakes and was greeted by a loud ker-thunk! as the king pin landed on the bed saver. Thank you Mr. Blue Ox!! The truck would have had a crushed bed without the bed saver.

We called CoachNet.com emergency road service (similar to Good Sam roadside assistance; we got this with the new Montana) and soon a 50-ton tow truck arrived. It was huge! In a matter of 15-20 minutes he had us back on the landing gear. With the truck out of the way I could see the cable from the trailer that attaches to the truck had been mashed. So we set off to an automotive store where I bought a crimping tool and some splices. It took most of the day but I got the damaged wires spliced and everything put back together.

I wanted to get out of town before the next disaster, so we left for a one-niter in Rusk, TX followed by Leander, TX and Kerrville, TX. And that's how we were introduced to the hazard of making reservations too far in advance.

26-29 March 2010
(New Braunfels, TX)

We were on our way thru some gorgeous countryside headed for Rusk. We found that Texas has some wonderful roadside picnic stops that had room for the Montana. We were able to rest and eat comfortably. A short while after pulling back onto the highway the alarm for the trailer-brake controller went off. It said the trailer wasn't connected. "Oh yeah?! Well I can see the bloody thing right where it's supposed to be!"

My first guess was that I hadn't gotten one of the connections spliced properly. The really scarey part was the failure meant we had no trailer brakes. We had to rely solely on the truck brakes to stop all 23,000#. God help the person that cuts in front of us.

As we drove West, the Admiral got busy on the phone and we rerouted ourselves thru San Marcos, TX onto I-35 and then to Camping World in New Braunfels, TX. We made it there without too much pucker-factor only to be told they'd be happy to schedule us for repair in about 6 weeks. Clearly Camping World, a Keystone dealer by the way, is not a place to rely on in an emergency.

I'd noticed an RV park about 5 miles North of CW, so we turned around and went to Canyon Trails RV Resort and managed to get a space. 'Managed' because the park was filled with Hitchhiker 5th wheel trailers. Turned out a West Texas chapter of the national organization of owners was having their annual rendezvous (rally? whatever).

We called a mobile RV repair guy willing to take a look at the problem. He re-did all the work I'd done and found we still had the same fault. Then he discovered that the problem was actually in the connection between the after-market connector in the bed of the truck and the Ford wiring harness. The brake failure had nothing to do with the repairs I'd done to the cable. He suggested using the Ford connector down by the lower hitch till we got back to Santa Fe and have the truck wiring repaired. He also found that the fuse in the truck that feeds the trailer battery as we tow was blown (not surprising since a lot of things had been shorted when the trailer dropped). We took his suggestion and switched to the other connector and had no further trouble unless I tried to turn too tightly.

Canyon Trails is an older park which had recently re-done their short-term rental sites (don't recall if the long term renters had new sewer connections and patios). So it had the appearance of being a new park. Plus they have a good sized dog run in front, so everyone was happy.

About using the KOA reservation system: we managed to lose the cost of one night of camping at each of 3 KOAs because we weren't able to cancel at least 48 hrs ahead of the reservation. We use KOA a lot because theirs is the only on-line reservation system available to RV campers. But there's a risk associated with using their system and we paid the price.

29-30 March 2010
(Junction, TX)

With the repairs and work-around in place we left New Braunfels and went to Junction, TX where the KOA is right next to the Llano River (pronounced YAW-no). Many of the campers brought fishing gear and spent the day fishing. The park was very open when we were there at the end of March, so we could really enjoy walking thru the campground. The only problem is the park is filled with pecan trees which aren't harvested. So the ground was covered with them. Annie did here part to clean up the fallen nuts by swallowing as many as she could whole. I swear she rattled when she walked but she was a happy girl.

We had arrived at the campground early in the day and were able to nose around the area a little including a stop at the local market. We picked up a few odds and ends and while waiting in line, Celia struck up a conversation with the guy behind her. Turns out he had just turned 96 and also had just finished shelling 1,200# of pecans. Yikes! He told Celia he used to do over 3,000# but he was getting too old to do that much. We were mightily impressed! Judging by the respect given him at the market, locals are very proud of their old timer.

Junction was a one-niter since we needed to get to Santa Fe to start doing taxes. Next stop... Van Horn, TX.

30-31 March 2010
(Van Horn, TX)

Van Horn is an odd stop. The campground is on the south side of town and happens to have the best cafe in town. We stopped here on the way East and now knew to plan on eating at the campground. There are a couple truck stops in Van Horn, so diesel is easy to find. We looked around the town a little but the truth is it's a desperate looking place that doesn't make you feel like "I wouldn't mind living here." But it is perfectly located between Junction and Las Cruces, NM, so it's a popular stop that fills up every night. Btw, the park is also very horse-friendly offering corrals and exercise area.

Next morning we were up early (for us!) for a long run to Las Cruces. I wanted to be sure we passed thru El Paso, TX before the commute started as the highway there scares the crap out of me!

Postcard from Louisiana -

2010-03-24T12:23:00.001-07:00

22-24 March 2010

We really enjoy the KOA at Lafayette, even with all the traffic noise from the Interstate. It's run by the 3rd generation of the same family and we find the folks very friendly.

This time we knew where a good restaurant was: we had to make a stop at Fezzo's. It's a small local chain and, in our limited experience, the etoufe is exceptional. But we figured there were probably several places in the area that might please our palate.

We asked a neighbor- they were here when we passed thru in January- where they had found to have dinner that they thought was really good. Their response was "Prejeans!" They pronounced it "pree-jeens" which didn't sound right, so we asked a local. They chuckled and said we needed to use the French pronunciation... it sounded something like "pray-zjons". Even Mr. Garmin got it right!

We had a great meal at Prejeans, plus there was a local band for dinner. Nothing like Cajun food with the sound of Zydeco filling the air. Like Fezzo's, Prejeans was expensive, but the food was superb. Major grin-factor!

On a hunch, Celia asked if we could find beniets anywhere in town. We were going to miss New Orleans this time, but she wanted to get the flavor anyway. They told us to ask at any of the Chinese fast food restaurants. Huh?! You gotta be kidding, right? Celia gave it a try and came back with a dozen beniets, so no, they were not kidding! The beniets were so-so, but what the heck. Sadly, after the home made doughnuts from Doug & Pat nothing comes close!

Just 2 nights in Lafayette, then we were off to Conroe, TX... the place I love to hate.

Postcard from Alabama

2010-03-22T12:09:00.002-07:00

20-22 March 2010
We left E Tallahassee, FL and headed for the KOA in Lillian, AL... the Gulf Shores facility on Perdido Bay. It's just over the bridge from the tip of the Florida panhandle where NAS Pensacola is located. For our 37' Montana they have only 3 large sites suitable for transient use (their "supersites") and we were assigned one of them. Thankfully I didn't have to attend another meeting of the Brown Knee Society... I've managed to remember that it's important to keep the drain valves for the black tank (the one used by the toilet) closed after disconnecting from the sewer.

We tried a fish place down on the strand (not sure that's what locals call it), but by the time dinner was over we'd decided we should have stayed home. The next day, however, we ate lunch at Hazel's (our second time), also on the strand, and enjoyed an inexpensive buffet. There are probably dozens of places to eat around here but we struggled finding them. So for now, Hazel's is the best we can suggest.

Off to Lafayette, LA.

Postcard from Florida- 5

2010-03-20T12:05:00.002-07:00

18 March 2010
(Wildwood, FL)

We had stayed an extra day in Clewiston so we could enjoy the St. Patrick's Day dinner at the KOA. By the time we waddled home we were glad we'd done it.

In the morning we had a couple visitors including Doug & Pat who brought home made doughnuts. My God they were good! Thanks guys. We patted our happy tummies, said our farewells and headed for Wildwood, FL.

Wildwood KOA isn't great as KOAs go, but it's friendly and convenient. And our site was wide enough to be easy in/out.

Wildwood is also the home of the The Cotillion restaurant. If you like dessert, yuh gotta stop here! Dinner was great but it got in the way of the 10" tall angel food cake I had. I thought my mom's Aunt Aggie was the master of angel food cake, but her reputation is being challenged! Amazing. We didn't have reservations (might be smart to call ahead) and just managed to get the last available table.

When we got back to the Montana we were greeted by a wet floor. The new washing machine had overflowed which usually means a full or blocked tank. My habit is to connect the waste line to the sewer and then open the drain for the tank that collects the galley sink water and (on the new rig) the washing machine. I knew it was open so clearly the problem had to be the new Montana. I called a mobile repair service and was told $125 just to show up plus labor for whatever it takes to do the repair. His parting shot was "The last time I had a call like this it turned out the drain valve wasn't open. Anyway, call me back if you want me to add you to the schedule." I thought 'here we go again!' More repairs.

At Celia's insistence I checked the valve which I knew was open and... oops! It wasn't. Damn. Then I opened the drain valve and watched in panic as the flexible drain line connected to the sewer straightened and stiffened to the point I thought it might burst. Yikes! We've never had another problem with the washing machine, but to this day I cannot recall closing the valve after having first opened it. Gremlins I guess.

While I was outside I was treated to a great sunset... cluttered by power lines, but a delight nonetheless.

19 March 2010
From Wildwood we headed for E. Tallahassee and found ourselves in an older KOA in a rural setting. Lots of tall pine with mostly sand on the drives and sites. Unfortunately our site had some damage from the night before. One of the leveling jacks on a heavy Class A had punched thru the tangle of roots beneath the sand and left a deep 12" pothole. In fact the park golf cart leading us in nearly capsized when he hit it (not an exaggeration!). I tried to like the site but eventually we asked to be moved as there wasn't room for the slides.

Don't know if they still do it, but we were greeted at the office with an invitation to stop back later for fresh chocolate chip cookies which were cooling and not quite ready. Hmmm... last nite angel food cake, tonight God's own chocolate chip cookies. I fear we're enjoying ourselves way too much! :)

Time to leave Florida and go to Lillian, AL.

Postcard from Florida- 4

2010-03-18T09:28:00.006-07:00

28 Jan - 4 Feb 2010
(Sugarloaf Key, Ramrod Key & Key West)

Sugarloaf Key KOA at night

KW street fair

Out for a walk on Noname Key

The trip to the keys was great: cafe con leche with cheese toast at 5 Brothers on Ramrod Key every morning; trips to town to get connected to the internet (voice & data cell service 300-400 yards off the Overseas Hwy is crap except for SMS messages); visited some old haunts; went for a great walk with Michael & the dogs on a key that was used by the military to train for the Cuban invasion; we cursed the noseeums a lot; got the truck serviced; and generally enjoyed ourselves. The last day the heavens opened up and we had a real gully washer... sans gullies. Must be time to leave.

2 Feb - 18 Mar 2010
(Clewiston & Sefner, FL)
We pulled out of Sugarloaf on 2/4 with the engine acting weird. It was misfiring at certain speeds and running poorly at others, so it made for a vary nervous drive to the Miami area. The keys aren't where you go to find diesel service and there's no Ford dealer until you get to Miami. So we pushed on, avoiding the worst engine speeds. There is nowhere to pull off to the side of the road with a big 5th wheel in tow till you arrive at Largo.

We finally made it to Florida's Turnpike and pulled off at the first rest area where I stopped the engine. I was digging for the Good Sam emergency road service card and for no good reason I tried to restart the engine... which ran perfectly. Oh great. Does this mean I could have stopped and restarted the engine 100 miles back and not had the miserable drive?! I don't want to think about it. [ Note: After we got back we learned we had 1 bad injector which was replaced under warranty by Bob Turner Ford in Albuquerque, NM ]

Burning cane nearby

So off we went to Clewiston where we stayed for a couple nights. Then 2 nights stretched into 4, then another week. Finally we thought this was silly so we asked for an additional month ($550/mo + elec. at the time vs. $840/mo + free elec.).

The downside of Clewiston (motto: "Sweetest Little Town in America"; essentially a company town which exists because of US Sugar) is that the park is in the middle of the cane fields.US Sugar has a new process which eliminates burning the fields to harvest, but the independents still do it the old way: burn the fields (takes about 30 minutes, then let it cool) then cut the cane. This photo shows what it looks like right after they light the cane. Looks bad but the truth is I never did see soot on the rig.

It isn't that the KOA in Clewiston is a gorgeous, one-of-a-kind park- it's actually pretty old with very little updating that I could see. Rather it's the people that stay here that make it special. We had a great time and look forward to coming back.

Glen, Dale and Doug with the flag

And the Canadians were wonderful. Especially after they won Olympics gold in ice hockey against the USA. They wanted to make sure everyone knew how the match ended, so a few got into the back of a restored 1957 Chevy pickup and drove around the park waving the maple leaf and yelling the news. Such thoughtful people. (&^%#@%!)

Back-row, but facing open pasture (to the right of the road)

Right after we moved to the rear of the park into the long-term area we had the awning fall off. That's when I realized it had happened before and one base was re-attached to and area of very thin sheet metal with no support. It was a miracle it hadn't fallen off earlier. I spotted a pair of holes in the coach sidewall that had been filled which looked to be the place it had originally been installed so that's where I re-re-located the awning base.

The awning was the last straw. We'd been repairing the Montana all the way across country and there seemed to be no end in sight. Especially since I'd seen that the water heater had developed a slow leak and the electric heating element stopped working. It was likely the next to go.

Since we had been enjoying traveling with the dogs so much, we decided to spend a couple weeks looking at new fifth wheels to replace our Montana which had the front lounge (model 3655FL). Turned out Montana had a new (2010) version of the FL which we looked at. In our view, they had screwed up the design plus it was another 2' longer than ours. So we passed on that. We looked at several brands but kept coming back to the Montana. Eventually we decided on the 3400RL (RL = rear lounge) with the Moving-to-Montana and Hickory Edition options packages and started looking for a unit on a dealer's lot.

New (right) beside old ready to move our stuff

We located what we wanted East of Tampa. Lazy Days in Seffner, FL- supposedly the largest RV dealer in the US. They had a 2010 Montana 3400RL equipped with the options we wanted except slide toppers and 5.5 kW generator. Next thing we knew we'd bought a new Montana and Lazy Days would install the generator. The toppers would have to come later. [ Note: We've since learned slide toppers can be a hazard as they can't be rolled up in a heavy wind without retracting the slide they're attached to. If they had a way to retract separate from the slide, we'd still be interested in adding them. ]

The guy running the tug was amazing as he snaked the new rig past the open slide of the old one!

We towed our 2003 Montana to Seffner and expected to leave the next day with the new rig. One nite stretched into 2 then 3 and pretty soon it had been a week of living in a delivery area that had a layer of dirt/dust that would destroy any carpet. Plus it was a dry-camping area (no water, no sewer) only intended for a 1 or 2 nite stay. Apparently not much happens at Lazy Days (and you ask "Didn't you pay attention to the name?!") till you get pissed because, after a week of waiting-waiting-waiting, we were out of there 2 days after I vented. Our rush about leaving was because it was getting to be time to file taxes and we needed to be in Santa Fe for that since we didn't bring everything with us. We won't let that happen again!

We eventually got the rig back to Clewiston, spent a week of getting settled in, then we were off to Santa Fe after a great St. Patrick's Day meal of corned beef and cabbage.

Postcard from Florida- 3

2010-01-28T17:19:00.002-07:00

26 - 28 Jan 2010
(Fiesta Key on Long Key, FL)

I'd done a Google for an RV campground in Key Largo which would break up the trip nicely. I found what we needed and called the number. Made the reservation and then loaded the address into the GPS.

When we arrived at the programmed address we were greeted by... nothing! There was no sign of the resort. Whatever had been there at one time had been consumed by the mangrove swamp. I suspected if I listened carefully I'd hear Tarzan swinging thru the trees.

Ocean views at Fiesta Key

A quick call to the same number got the explanation: Fiesta Key Resort has nothing to do with what the on-line listing is about. The phone number was right, but the address was way off. Not to worry though as Fiesta Key Resort had our reservation and all I had to do was drive another 25 miles. Looks like I need to ask questions even though a listing is quite clear.

Fiesta Key, apparently an ex-KOA park judging from the office building, was a nice park. We were 1 row back from the waterfront which is on the Atlantic. The dogs loved all the new smells and all the weird sounds of small waves slapping the sea wall. The park had perhaps 20% occupancy which was s shock for the middle of snowbird season. Yikes! I'm convinced it's the prices here: $125/nite... even more than Sugarloaf Key where we're headed next.

28 Jan 2010
(Sugarloaf Key, FL)

So off we went to our final destination. Check-in time is 1:00 pm and we arrived about 11:30 am. But our site was empty so they got us in our site ahead of the rush. Unlike any of the other campgrounds we've used, Sugarloaf has all sites at 90 deg to the access road instead of the usual 45 deg. It becomes a challenge in backing into place and requires a really good person to guide the driver into place. The guy who helped us was a master at it, but never had to prove it. Instead, he checked the empty site behind us and asked "Think you can make that turn?" I said sure (with my fingers crossed!) and we were able to park as though we had a pull-through site. Yee haw!

So now we're parked in a beautiful campground which fronts on the Atlantic. It may not be paradise, but it's as close as these 2 old toots are going to come. And we're as far south as we can drive in the US... no way is Mrs. Bowman's little boy dragging a 5th wheel into Key West!

Postcard from Florida- 2

2010-01-26T16:54:00.003-07:00

22 Jan - 24 Jan 2010
(Wildwood, FL)

The park looked empty but filled later

Wildwood, FL was a stop very close to I-75 and truck stop. Standing outside and listening to the noise level had me convinced I'd made a disastrous mistake. But the reality was not bad at all. It's old and the spaces are narrow and out of date, but everything worked and, since no one was given the space on either side of us, we had plenty of room.

So we took advantage of the room and deployed our awning for the first time. What a comedy of errors! But we got it out and are ready to repeat the performance the next time anyone needs some entertainment. One couple thought we were locked out and trying to get into the trailer and were ready to offer some suggestions. Or maybe they thought I was trying to break in... ???

The morning after we arrived everyone was invited to a pancake breakfast. We probably wouldn't have fixed pancakes for ourselves, but when it means not having to wash dishes (that's my job), I'll be there! Apparently this is a fairly common weekend thing at these campgrounds and gives people the chance to meet other campers.

24 Jan - 26 Jan 2010
(L Okeechobee, FL)

I thought it was a small site... till Sugarloaf Key KOA

After Wildwood we were off to Lake Okeechobee KOA. Okeechobee was our first experience with a really crowded and upscale destination resort. If, like us, you're not a golfer, you'll probably feel out of place! I thought the sites were really tight (I now realize I had no concept what "tight" really means in an RV resort!). But no one seems to complain since they spend most of there time on the golf course or one of the two swimming pools. And they have entertainment at their convention center, e.g. The Four Aces were on the bill. The best feature was a mini dog park where the girls could be off-leash for awhile. I think Kelly set some sort of speed record for the facility and Annie had a great time herding Kelly. It was great watching them have a really good time.

Still some sites, but a day later it was filled

The resort grounds are gorgeous thanks to all the recent rainfall, and they added to the total while we were there. The rain made walking the dogs a challenge what with flooded streets. Since it was raining we decided to go for a drive around the lake. But Okeechobee has a surrounding levee and a drive around the lake amounts to a drive beside the levee. Not a droip of water can be seen except where the locks are visible from the road

So we thought "Hey, we haven't had a Starbucks coffee for weeks... let's go find one!" Asking around we learned Starbucks is non-existent here. What's more we couldn't find any place that had an espresso machine. Bummer.

On the 26th we were off to the Keys. First Key Largo for the night, then on to Sugarloaf Key where we're booked for a week.

Postcard from Florida

2010-01-22T15:42:00.004-07:00

20 - 22 Jan 2010
(Chattahoochee, FL)

Lots of shade in Chatahoochee KOA

After our 2-night stop in Gulf Shores, AL we were on our way to Chattahoochee, FL... just east of the state capital in Tallahassee, FL. The campground is in a rural setting with an excellent canopy of trees, mostly oak. Annie discovered acorns and did her best to clean up the grounds. I was scared to death she'd get sick but I can now confirm 2 things: she didn't get sick, and acorns come out looking pretty much the same as the way they go in since she just swallowed them whole. Which is pretty much the way she eats everything!

Annie doing an acorn survey

We made it into the town of Chattahoochee to do some shopping and found ourselves at an IGA grocery. My maternal grandfather, in the tiny Central Valley hamlet of Lockeford, CA, owned an IGA. It's probably just IGA today, but at that time IGA was the abbreviation for Independent Grocers of America. My grandfather's store had the innovative name of Lockeford Grocery. He had that store from well before the Great Depression and kept a lot of farming families alive during that economic disaster. After he died in the late '60s my mother told me that as late as 1968 there were still a couple people paying back what they owed at $5 per month. So that makes 2 trips down nostalgia lane on this trip: a Piggly Wiggly and an IGA grocery store.

Other than enjoying the quiet there's not much to recommend a stop here. So to liven things up the weather magicians sent a nasty T-storm our way. It got wet and ugly outside but, other than a few places where wind blew some water in past the slide-seals, we got thru it OK. The neighboring town of Quincy (12 miles away) wasn't quite so lucky- they were hammered by a tornado.

Off to Wildwood, FL.

Postcard from Alabama

2010-01-20T15:08:00.003-07:00

We were up early in Louisiana hoping for a fast start as it was going to be a 300 mile day. We typically average about 50 mph including stops and 6 hours of towing a 37' trailer is enough, thank you!

So it was disappointing to find fog when we popped outside. I charged on hoping for the best. By the time we had said our goodbyes and were pulling out of our site the visibility had increased to about 1/2 mile. As we headed east the fog kept thinning and after 30 minutes it was nothing but a bad memory.

The drive was the kind we hate: I-10 for 95% of the trip. But after we passed Mobile, AL, Mr. Garmin routed us off the Interstate and onto AL-59. What a relief! We rambled our way thru the south Alabama countryside enjoying the ride past farmland. We got to the campground in plenty of time. Which was good as we had a bit of a problem...

A portion of I-12, where I-10 re-joins east of New Orleans, is in terrible shape. We hit a section without cautionary speed signs that had the truck and trailer flying in opposing directions (I think they call this "chucking"). I needed to slow but had a big 18-wheeler bearing down on us. He wasn't having a problem, but we certainly were! When we arrived at the campground I started unhitching and discovered that, in addition to dumping all our clothes off the bar and opening cabinet doors, the 5/8"diameter electrical cable (it connects the truck brakes to the trailer brakes and tail/brake lights) had become trapped under the base of the trailer hitch... a space the cable normally would never fit into. The hitch weighs about 300# and the weight from the front of the trailer is another 2,000#. With over 1 ton mashing the cable I was worried the the insulation might fail. It took the better part of an hour but I finally got enough slack into the cable to unhitch, then used a pry bar to lift the hitch enough to get the cable dislodged.

This KOA had assigned us to one of their 3 "super sites", a really nice site adjacent to the office, showers and laundry. After all the drama with the cable, I joined the Brown Knee Society. The BKS is an exclusive organization composed of travelers who have opened the sewer cap on their RV in order to connect the flexible sewer line only to find some idiot (that would be me!) had left the holding tank drain valve open, then used the toilet enroute to the next campground. If you're uncertain what happened next, watch Robin Williams' movie RV. It wasn't pretty. The Admiral wouldn't let me into the coach to change clothes (Admirals are like that). Instead she passed a garbage bag to me filled with clean pants, laundry detergent and my towel and shower gear, then sent me on my way with her best wishes. Let me tell you, guys, no one loves you when you've been kneeling in the family poop!

The campground in Gulf Shores, AL, across the bridge from Pensacola, FL, turned out to have a great location on Perdido (Hidden) Bay. We couldn't see it for the trees when we arrived, but we were right on Perdido Bay. A short walk down a nearby trail had us on the beach.It would have been a great stop, but sadly the toilets & showers are not Admiral approved!

We were still nursing colds but we did manage to cross the bridge into Florida and then drive back on the sliver of sand that forms to opposing boundary of Perdido Bay. You'll have to take my word on this since we weren't permitted to stop along the roadway, but the beaches are a blinding white sand. Portions are protected from development by a state park, but the mass of the area has already been developed with the malignant infestation of high rise condos. The very thing that attracts visitors has been covered. Reminds me of that line from a Joni Mitchell song "... they paved paradise and put up a parking lot."

We found a pretty good restaurant along the strand called Hazel's. So did every other visitor over the age of 65 and they all were there for the inexpensive buffet. And it was pretty good, too.

PS- most folks know what a mobile home is and presume that "mobile" refers to the fact they are gotten to their destination by towing them, making them mobile. The reality is something different and one of those mostly-forgotten bits of Americana.

After WWII, the home building industry could not come close to keeping up with demand for housing. Modular homes - houses built in a factory then delivered to the home site on the bed of a truck - were the short term solution (and still a popular product everywhere, especially in New Mexico). They were inexpensive and could be built much faster in a factory than carpenters working on a job site. They did, however, require a large truck to get the modular home to the site.

An innovative builder of modular homes in Mobile, Alabama named Mobile Homes hit upon the idea of building the modular home on top of a metal frame with axles and a removable hitch. This not only eliminated the need to use large trucks, but it also made the home maneuverable for positioning in the their final location. And the design allowed the use of cheaper materials. Just connect the finished home to a smaller truck with a stout hitch and away you go. Not sufficiently durable to be used as a travel trailer, but moveable none the less. The corporate name Mobile Homes was just too convenient and non-specific to retain its corporate roots and mobile home became the noun of choice to describe ultra-light modular homes delivered on integral axles.

So the next time you see a "mobile home", remember that you're celebrating the industrial genius of a company in Mobile, Alabama.

Postcard from Louisiana- 2

2010-01-18T22:08:00.004-07:00

Lafayette, LA

We made a 2nd visit to Fezzo's and were as happy as the first visit. This time we tried chicken & sausage gumbo. Amazing. Spicey, but not as hot as the last green chile I had at Castro's in Santa Fe.

As mentioned, we extended our stay 2 more days. We had hoped to take it easy but at least see a few things. That wasn't to be. Our colds had us flattened and the best we could do was watch a couple football games. Just as well as the weather was crap too. Not freezing at nite, but ...

I've made reservations for us to stay a couple nites at the KOA in Gulf Shores, AL and very near Pensacola, FL. The forecast is for warmer weather starting Monday, the day we leave.

Postcard from Louisiana

2010-01-15T21:43:00.005-07:00

14 - 18 Jan 2010
(Lafayette, LA)

KOA in Lafayette, LA

Finally a new state! Traveling east across Texas starting at the tip of the panhandle is a l-o-n-g way!
We arrived in Lafayette, LA on 14 January and I believe it was on 2 Jan that we left Las Cruces, NM and entered Texas.

Sadly the sunshine in the photo was short lived and temps started dropping. But it didn't freeze overnite so we aren't complaining. Weeeell... maybe a little, but only cuz we're so good at it! :)

Getting unhitched takes awhile now since I can only operate the landing gear for a little over a second at a time without blowing a fuse. But mechanically it worked great and there was no repeat of the the loud noises nor refusal to move.

When we checked in, the Admiral asked about local restaurant favorites and the consensus was "Fezzo's" (FEE-zo's). We got directions and made it there between the lunch and supper crowds with the place nearly empty. It took a little chit-chat with our helpful waitress Jamie and we ended up with a mountain of food that was delicious. I've had gumbo before and enjoyed it, but after eating at Fezzo's I have to admit I've never really had gumbo before... it was incredible! A little hard to see the name on the roof ("No kidding, dude!"). But it's between the Harley and Kawasaki dealerships and well worth the stop. This place is Admiral approved!

The problems with the landing gear had to be addressed, so Friday had me on the phone calling first the Keystone factory (they made our Montana) and then a Montana dealer. I was getting busy making plans to get us to Ville Platte, LA to have the dealer there look at things next week (the earliest!) when the Admiral pointed out that the best info we've gotten concerning anything important was right at the RV park wherever we were staying. So why not ask?

So OK, I'll play her silly game. 5 minutes later we met Bubba who happens to be the 2nd of the 2 3rd-generation siblings running the RV park. We talked it over, he seemed to understand what I was certain was the problem and he stopped down to look at part numbers. He left to make a few calls and see what we were supposed to have installed while we went to Piggly Wiggly for groceries.

There's more than one supermarket in the little town of Scott (adjacent to Lafayette), but I just had to shop at Piggly Wiggly for sentimental reasons. Back around 1915-1920 my grandfather managed a Piggly Wiggly store in the Central Valley of California (Turlock? Modesto?). Piggly Wiggly was a marketing innovation: you could not get from the entrance to the cash register without passingt every shelf in the market... you had to 'wiggle' your way past everything they had. The hope, of course, was to get people to buy more than they planned, but customers hated it. So the layout didn't last long, but they kept the name.

After leaving the market we stopped at another Auto Zone where I could buy electrical terminals in order to install the circuit breaker I bought earlier. Who should I see but Bubba. "I think I have the problem figured out. When I ran the motor, the fuse holder got really hot. I think it's a bad fuse holder. And you really ought to have a circuit breaker in there instead of a fuse anyway." Ohmygod. Could it be this simple? 20 minutes later the groceries were put away and the landing gear were working properly. AND they operate much faster than they ever have. They sound like a sack of peach pits in a garbage disposal, but they seem to workjust fine. Who'd a thunk it. I still believe the gear ratio is different than the original, but it works better, so who cares?!

And yes, the Admiral was right. Again!

An hour later it was pouring down rain. But that was OK because it was rain and not snow. And nothing on the trailer seemed to leak.

Sadly the Admiral is now starting to feel pretty crappy. My guess that Zyrtec was helping her get thru this with mild symptoms appears to be crap. So now I get to take care of her for awhile. Pretty nice how this worked out and, other than the traffic noise from I-10, this is a nice place to spend a couple extra days while she heals.

And oh btw, we can watch the playoffs. Weeell... I'll watch, the Admiral will sleep!

More later.

Postcard from Texas- 5

2010-01-14T21:45:00.003-07:00

After a painful thrashing of our checking account in Conroe, TX for repair of the landing gear, we headed for Brookeland, TX. This was our first experience with camping in a rustic setting and were pleasantly surprised with the woodsiness of the surroundings. Nearby was Sam Rayburn Reservoir plus signs announcing there were canoes available somewhere.

But we didn't see much: by this time the colds we had gotten in Conroe were hitting us pretty hard. The Admiral routinely takes Zyrtec for other respiratory issues and ended up not getting hit as hard as I did. Which worked out good for me as I wasn't able to do much once we got unhitched.

Which is when we found a problem with the repairs done in Conroe.

As I mentioned already, the last thing they said was that the 30 Amp fuse had blown and that I needed to buy replacements at a place like Auto Zone. The fuse was blown alright and now the landing gear motor eats fuses if operated for longer than 1-2 seconds at a time under heavy load. Like when trying to lift the front of the trailer to hitch up.

In hindsight I now realize they didn't repair our landing gear but instead they installed rebuilt legs from a different model Montana. That would be fine except the gear ratios seem to be different between our original legs and the rebuilt legs they installed (they extend more rapidly with no load). Our old 2002 electric motor can't seem to handle the extra load caused by the different gear ratio and we're blowing 30 Amp fuses. And Conroe is far enough away to be a different planet.

Anyway, as you can see it was still bloody cold, but the forest of sycamore and pine offered a nice setting and completely different from anything we've seen before. You can also see that the roads and campsites are dirt, so when we heard it was about to rain we headed for Louisiana ASAP.

One good thing, I finally used those 2"x8" boards I've been dragging cross country. The site was just a little off-level so using the 2 of them was just what the doctor (engineer?) ordered.

Btw... notice the light colored mud on the tire? The entire lower part of the truck is covered in the stuff. I thought it was sand when I drove on it, but the little bit that splattered into the exhaust pipe is still there. Insidious stuff.

When we got up Thursday AM we realized it was a tiny bit warmer. Could it be? Off to Lafayette, LA to find out!

Postcard from Texas- 4

2010-01-14T21:20:00.005-07:00

Conroe, TX

Our frantic escape from San Antonio & Columbus, punctuated by near frostbite while hitching up, had us on our way to Conroe, TX and what we feared would be even colder temps. We weren't disappointed.

The KOA in Conroe Lake is a huge RV park. It was originally an independent, but newer owners chose to join the KOA system. This is the first time we've seen a high-end RV park and we were taken aback by all the 'toys'. Like the indoor/outdoor pool and 2 fenced dog playgrounds. This park set a new standard for us. But with the cold temps the place was nearly empty save for the employees and us. Oh... and this brand new New Horizons. Roger & Debbie gave us the cooks tour and it's gorgeous. And big! You can't see the big red Volvo 610 they pull it with, but it's normal to see a 610 as the tractor of an 18-wheeler.

Not only was it as cold as we feared, neither were we free of our current trend of F-O-R-D: Fix Or Repair Daily. It wasn't the truck (which is doing fine). This time the landing gear was (were? whatever) the culprit. We called a mobile repair service advertised in the park brochure. That person passed us off to someone else because he was out of town and that company, Conroe RV, did the repair. They first repaired the driver side leg (the gears were worn enough that they were slipping), then with that repaired they found the passenger side was also bad. So a one day repair stretched into 2 days and about $750. And as they left they said "btw, the 30 Amp fuse is blown so you'll have to get a replacement at AutoZone or some other auto parts store."

So off we went to Brookeland, TX hoping things, both weather and repairs, would improve. Hah!

Postcard from Texas- 3

2010-01-14T17:50:00.003-07:00

San Antonio, TX

We arrived in San Antonio at KOA Alamo. Pretty nice facility! Lots of trees, all of which are looking quite naked this time of year. There's a stream very near our site- Salado Creek- and there's even dichondra hanging on to it's native green color. In the past when I ran into a mix of Bermuda, dichondra and rye I called it weeds, but in RV-speak it's called grass.

The drive from San Angelo was pleasant with very little traffic. Mr. Garmin designed the trip to take us through cotton fields just east of San Angelo and ranch land for the rest of the trip. We had 4 lane US-highways with just enough 2 lane to keep me alert until we joined I-10 at Junction, TX. On I-10 we had a lot of steep grades from Junction to San Antonio and I watched the fuel mileage drift relentlessly down to 11 mpg.

As pleasant as the drive to the outskirts of San Antonio may have been, the drive thru the city to the RV park was hell on wheels. And this was before the commute started. Once off the Interstate we were dumped into an industrial area with pock marked streets common to war zones or heavy trucks. Perhaps it was this high tension prelude that makes the park seem so deliciously tranquil.

We had grey weather starting 10 minutes after we arrived. But we were determined to get out to see the San Antonio River Walk. This mariachi was hanging around waiting to get into Rita's restaurant and looked about as glum as the whole day had been. In a couple hours he'll need to be in happy mode!

When we returned to the park we found this note attached to the door. Good thing we went out when we did! It turned cold and generally ugly, so we did little more than pull on our woolies to walk the dogs for the rest of our stay here. It was generally miserable.

Columbus, TX

We bailed out of San Antonio with our collective tail between our legs, beaten by the cold. Again. I know better than to whine because I realize how hot it can get along this route, but we are wondering when we'll be treated to slightly warmer weather. I can only hope that it gets the cold stuff out of the way before we arrive in the Keys where they're expecting 40 deg F at night... about 20 deg F lower than usual for winter in Key West.

Columbus, TX was a stop beside the freeway for the nite. And yes, it froze again over nite. We did drive into town for din-din and found that folks here have some respect for trees as witnessed by this circuitous preservation of 2 old timers. Wonder if they'll do the same for me when arthritis leaves me stranded in the middle of the street some day... yuh think maybe? Nah!

Off to Conroe, TX.

Postcard from Texas- 2

2010-01-04T22:26:00.002-07:00

We made it to San Angelo, TX, but not without a little drama. When I got up Sunday AM I found the waterline was frozen. Not surprising since it had gotten down to 27 deg F... duh! That was easy enough to deal with: join the 2 ends of the hose and toss it in the storage compartment to thaw. Better than our neighbor whose internal waterline burst and required some repair work inside.

Our bigger issue was the front slide which houses the settee in the front lounge area. Something in the drive mechanism was slipping and the unit refused to close. Finally I got outside and pushed while the Admiral operated the power switch and we managed to get it closed. Then on the roughly 300 mile trip from Van Horn to San Angelo I noticed the slide would work its way out maybe 1/8" - 1/4". Not a lot, but enough that the seal would probably leak in a downpour.

So after we arrived at the campground we contacted a local that has a mobile RV repair service. Shannon and his helper Bud ripped apart the drive, found the Woodruff key that connects the motor drive shaft to the gear had sheared. They found a replacement plus a spare for me to carry for the next time it happens, and had it back together and working in 2 hours. Before they arrived I hadn't a clue where the motor was located. Now I have a hunch I might be able to replace the key myself in the future.

After resisting the fussy chore of connecting to the campgrounds cable TV (requires changing how the TV cables are connected) I finally gave in so we could watch the Sunday nite game (a disaster if you're a Cincinnati fan, but the Jets looked great). While the lack of a channel guide to find what's playing is annoying, the available programming was so far superior to DirecTV that it makes me wonder why we're paying all that $$$ for The Weather Channel- it's the only thing we watch. They don't even offer us CNN except as a premium channel... CNN is a premium channel?! Gimme a break! I think DirecTV may be short-lived around here.

The sun currently is setting about 5:30 around here. Perhaps 45 minutes before sunset we had one of those 'deja vu all over again' moments when hundreds of birds (starlings?) started arriving and settling into the trees. It was straight out of Hitchcock's "The Birds" and was downright spooky! I expected to awake in the morning and find the Dog House covered in bird poop, but we were spared.

The truck is fueled up and we'll be, as Willy would say, "on the road again". Next stop San Antonio for 3 days. Supposed to start raining at some point while we're there. If it has to rain I sure hope it warms a little first. With current temps it would probably be snow!

Postcard from Texas

2010-01-02T17:44:00.004-07:00

Van Horn, TX

At last... on our way east!

We were away a little earlier today. The Admiral pointed out that the longer we stay somewhere, the longer it takes to get going. Sure enough, after a 3 night stop it took us till 9:15 to get on our way. Much better than the 10:45 getaway from Benson after 8 days! I got this look at the hills to the NW as I waited for the Admiral to finish the mini-walk with the dogs.

The trip from Las Cruces, NM to Van Horn, TX could have been much better were there a way to avoid El Paso. This is perhaps our 3rd time thru here and the traffic is no better. And, even though I had thought it impossible, the smog is even worse than last time. But, like a root canal, it was eventually over and we felt better.

Van Horn KOA... every site is a pull-thru!

Here we are in Van Horn, TX, all connected and ready for din-din. I asked an employee at the Las Cruces campground what I was going to find in Van Horn besides the KOA Kampground where we're parked for the night. He said "It's kind of like an oasis." I asked "Really? It's that good?" "No... it's more like the only thing that isn't desert. Nice little town, but there's not much around there." He was right on the money, but it's still a nice stop for a weary driver and the campground is very easy to get in and out: every site is a pull-thru.

Actually, we're not very weary as we only had a 175 mile day. Tomorrow's trip to San Angelo, TX will be our longest so far while towing- close to 300 miles. Some might think us wimps, but we've arbitrarily set 250-300 miles as our daily limit.

In preparation for a fast getaway we haven't unhitched. While it'll be convenient in the morning, it means the trailer rocks & rolls. When the dogs scratch at their harness, the whole floor leaps around like a California earthquake.

The KOA here in Van Horn has a small cafe which is why we didn't have to unhitch. We had dinner last nite and breakfast this morning. Van Horn is definitely not a luxury resort, but this was pretty darn close!

More coming from San Angelo...

Postcard from New Mexico

2010-01-01T22:46:00.007-07:00

Las Cruces, NM

We're getting really good at taking forever to get going in the morning! It was nearly checkout time (11 AM) when we pulled out of Benson, AZ. But we eventually made it out the gate and onto I-10 and trucked on down the road.

There's a serious problem with Arizona highways: the &^%$#! rest stops are all closed! Don't know if it's the season or budgetary issues, but it's a pain in the bladder for old toots like us. We finally pulled over at the exit to a closed rest stop and used the toilet in the Dog House. I was pissed, but I got over it! :) The only real issue with the Montana FL3655 is that, in a situation like this, we have to extend the dinette slide a little to be able to squeeze into the toilet. We managed to get moving again before the Highway Patrol found us.

So what happened to the warm southern winter!

After a stop at a Love's in Lordsburg, NM for lunch [ someone had driven into the corner of the building and really messed things up ], we pushed on to the KOA in Las Cruces, NM. It was cold, windy and cloudy but we managed to get hooked up before dark, so it was a good arrival.

Organ Pipe Mountains, Las Cruces.

And we had a glimpse of a spectacular sunset under the clouds.

The forecast was for 26 deg F overnight, so I disconnected the water only to discover the temps got nowhere near that low. You, the astute reader, probably wonder how I would know that. Easy: We spent from 1 AM to 2 AM tracking down Kelly who had bolted out the door without a leash. It's a no-no to have your dog outside unleashed. Do you suppose if she'd gotten away from us dragging her leash behind her it would have been technically OK? She had a great time running at full speed from shadow to shadow as she played her version of hide-and-seek.

Nice level sites on parallel parking strips in Las Cruces KOA

Here we are all snugged down for our stay in Las Cruces. We decided to stay 3 nights instead of 2 in order to avoid being on the road on New Years Day. I can't imagine things are any different in Las Cruces than in Santa Fe when it comes to driving under the influence, so better safe than along the side of the road with a bent RV.

Las Cruces "town center"... sort of

A cruising friend from the Keys asked us to find the town center, so we did... here you go Michael! Had no trouble at all finding it! :) I think we got the last available parking spot. It's a SuperCenter and the lot was full on this New Years Eve!

We'll be on the way tomorrow (Saturday, 1/2/2010) headed for Van Horn, TX.

ps- I really hope everyone remembered to hop on their left foot while saying "Rabbit, Rabbit!" on Saturday morning. We did... gotta keep that good luck coming! :)

Postcard from Arizona- 3

2009-12-31T19:23:00.003-07:00

Santa Fe, NM

We did a quick trip back to Santa Fe for the holiday and found a few inches of snow and our alley (it's 10' wide but the city insists upon calling it a street) paved with a 3" layer of ice... that ice will stay there till spring. 4-wheel drive got us up the alley OK and the street in front of the house was not bad at all. The yellow extension cord dangling from the front is for the block heater, so we didn't have to worry about the engine being hard to start.

The drive to Santa Fe was a little hairy at points. We saw heavy snow more than a couple times and I was wondering to myself 'so how much heavier does it have to get before I turn around?!' The snow wasn't sticking to the road, and each time I pondered the imponderable, the snow let up. So we made it to Santa Fe without a hitch.

We took a fair amount of teasing about being snow birds. Yeah, snow birds that don't have enough sense to stay away when there's snow on the ground! And on Christmas day the temps got up to a blazing 30 deg F for the high at our house after an overnight low of 6 F. Low temps like that usually mean the skies are clear and sure enough... all the clouds were on vacation for the week.

After a brief visit with friends we were on our way back to Benson, AZ. We bailed out of Santa Fe just ahead of the next bout of crap weather. We reminded ourselves that it is, after all, winter. Somehow it didn't help us feel any better!

All was well back at the trailer and we got some sleep before driving to Apache Junction on an errand. We had ordered replacement pillows which were supposed to arrive on 12/18 but didn't make it till 12/22. Don't you just love how on-line merchants claim they have things in stock but don't?

It was a quick get-it-done trip: get the package, stop at Sam's Club for a new computer for Bruce, then drive back to Benson. I guess there was a time when 1,100 miles in 2 days was easy, but I'm afraid I don't remember it!

We arrived back at Benson to find the park entrance flooded by a broken waterline. We still had a trickle of water at the Dog House, so we tanked up before they shut off the water to do repairs (the KOA in Benson has great tasting water!). We did some grocery shopping, then on Wednesday 12/30 we were on our way to Las Cruces, NM.

Postcard from Arizona-2

2009-12-21T22:40:00.006-07:00

When we returned from Santa Fe it took a few days to get our nearly frozen body parts thawed. We came to appreciate that while 65 deg F high for the day doesn't seem all that warm compared to the Florida Keys, it's a lot warmer than northern New Mexico this time of year!

Before leaving for home we had made an appointment to have an auxiliary tank installed in the truck by Cliff's Welding in Mesa, AZ. And, since we have the dogs roosting in the back seat while we're underway, we decided a lockable storage space in the bed of the truck would be nice too. Cliff's sells a combo tank/tool box built by RDS in Florida that seemed about right: 40 more gallons of diesel plus a 10" x 18" x 30" storage compartment. Installation took 3 hrs. and I was on the way. It was a great job except for one tiny detail: I couldn't move fuel from the auxiliary tank to the main tank. Cliff's figured it out quickly: RDS had neglected to install the siphon tube in the tank when they built it. Cliff's doesn't test the installation since insurance companies don't like welding shops to keep fuel on the premises (they told me how to test it). Thankfully it was no big deal for them to fab the missing part and 30 minutes later we were good to go. Lesson #127: make sure new equipment is working before you leave town!

We found a great place for BBQ in Gilbert. Called Joe's Real Barbeque on Gilbert Road, they served a great meal. Besides great ribs etc., they also have homemade root beer and Admiral-approved chocolate chip cookies. The folks that own Joe's also own the Liberty Market Restaurant across the street which we plan to try next time we come this way.

Scottsdale, AZ

We managed to get to Scottsdale on 12/19 and spent the day wandering around old-town. They had some helpful volunteers that mentioned a few things to see and loaded us with more maps.

The patio at Cien Agave restaurant/bar

After a couple hours we were ready to load the dogs back into the truck so we could get a bite to eat. A waitress at Cien Agave came out to admire the dogs and to tell us they had a dog-friendly patio where we could bring them with us and have lunch. Cool! Comfortable spot and, if you're ever there with your pet(s) and want to eat, they have great burritos.

In chatting with our waitress (who teaches school during the week) we learned that Arizona has a law that requires restaurants to serve non-alcoholic beer to minors if they are accompanied by their parents and the parents order it. N/A beer has as much as 0.5% alcohol which for me- I stopped drinking alcohol in the mid-'80s- is enough to get buzzed. I was floored that the state would permit teenagers to drink any kind of alcohol in public places. Our waitress hasn't been faced with the situation yet, but her plan is to refuse to serve N/A beer to a minor and fully expects to be fired if it should come up.

There were several things we wanted to see while here in the greater-Phoenix area, but all we could manage was to get Xmas packages mailed, buy some groceries, and it was time to leave.

Benson KOA

We had reservations at the KOA in Benson where we are right now. As you can see from the photo, reservation weren't exactly necessary! [ Reserving ahead using the on line reservation system for KOA saves us 10%, so we do it regardless. ]

We did some sight seeing yesterday (Monday) since Tombstone is only 30 minutes away. We wandered around Boothill Graveyard where the Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers are buried. Clanton and the McLaury brothers died in the gun fight with Wyatt & Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday at the OK Coral; three others were wounded. The stone cairn graves are from about 1879 thru about 1882. The ground seems impossible to dig for a conventional grave so this must have been the only practical solution. I can't imagine what it smelled like at the grave yard at the time!

Tombstone's boot hill

Tombstone must have been a difficult place to reach an old age. The more dramatic reasons for death ranged from 'shot in the head' to 'hanged' and 'poisoned', but there were also things like consumption, pneumonia, scarlet fever, mine-accident, and other less movie-worthy deaths. In case you can't read it, this grave marker gives some insight into the gallows humor of the day:

Here lies Lester Mor
Four slugs from a .44
No Les
No Mor

We walked the dogs thru the old town center where they got lots of attention. We must have said at least 50 times that
- they're Bernese Mountain Dogs;
- yes, they shed a lot;
- yes, they're very mellow;
- of course you can pet them.

All she needs is a saddle!

And so on. It was fun and the dogs loved the attention.

There were several locals hanging out that seemed to be there to add some flavor. They were decked out in boots, jeans and western hats, some with side-arms. The town offers a narrated stage coach tour for we tourists. We weren't able to take the tour, but we heard most of the spiel as we wandered around town and had the coach pass us several times.

We had a great lunch at the Longhorn in Tombstone. Not so much because of the sandwiches but because of the to-die-for desserts they serve. I haven't had apple pie that good in a long time. I probably shortened my life by at least a year because of all the lard they used in the crust, but it sure tasted good!

We'll leave the Dog House here in Benson while we drive to Santa Fe for the holiday. When we get back from Santa Fe we'll start heading toward Florida. There is a fly in the ointment...

I just received a jury summons. I believe that it's been less than 36 months since I served on a jury in Santa Fe, so I hope to be excused. If not, this may be the end of the trip till April when my time on the jury panel ends. [start whine!] I can't be sure, of course, but I believe they keep rotating the same people thru jury duty until they either move out of the county or die or they prove to be controversial enough there will be a problem with being selected. That seems to be the only reason they get new blood into the loop. Doesn't seem to be a very fair system as far as spreading the pain. [/end of whine!]

Best wishes for a happy holiday season!

Postcard from Arizona

2009-12-11T00:48:00.008-07:00

We wrestled the Dog House loose from the clutches of Albuquerque on 3 December and headed for Holbrook, AZ. It would be generous to describe the weather as chilly. We were afraid we might see ice and some scarey conditions, but it was just fine other than watching the fuel gauge dive toward the big E.

Our 38 gal. tank is big enough to give us about 350 miles range even at 10 mpg (we did a little better than that). While a 350 mile range should be adequate, we can't always count on being able to buy diesel whenever we want, especially when we're off the Interstate. I'd feel better with more fuel aboard and we'll try to fix that while we're in AZ.

Looking kind of lonely at the Holbrook KOA

We stopped at the KOA in Holbrook for the night. Nice campground with clean restrooms which the Admiral greatly appreciated. I think AAA needs to add a new rating: "Admiral Approved!" She's a tough sell and really has a lot to say about those that don't meet her minimums. Things like "&^%$@ pig sty!" come to mind. Happily that was not the case here.

I'd vaguely entertained the idea of staying over an extra nite. I thought it would be fun to visit the Petrified Forest NP again and see if any of the trees had grown in the 60+ years since I last visited. Chattering teeth when we stepped out to walk the dogs seemed to say this was probably not the time. So we gathered ourselves together and off we went in the Dog House to see if Apache Junction was any warmer.

The drive SW was spectacular. The whole trip was via state highways: AZ-377/-277/-260/-87/-188/-80. The route (picked by Mr. Garmin) took us through Payson, AZ. We first had miles of open, relatively flat land before we started climbing the first of the intervening mountain ranges. These rolling hills with their low now-dormant grasses were washed in pastel reds from the morning sun. The colors reminded us how much we appreciate this desert landscape. Where some might see dead, dry, useless land, we tend to see subtle shadings of the earth, rocks and plants of this amazing desert landscape. Unlike New Mexico, Arizona showed us more red and the mountains we encountered are more raw and rugged.

Gila National Forest was beautiful with mostly 2-lane and short sections of either a passing lane or divided road. Except in Payson, most businesses were closed (thank God we didn't need diesel!), so we had to pull over briefly to make a sandwich. So close to the forest, we had hoped to see wild life along the way, but I think all the critters took one look at that first snow and checked into a local motel. We had sunny, clear skies, but it was still pretty cold!

After the Gila NF we popped out into desert and saw our first saguaro cactus. They lined the roadway like sullen sentinels with their arms raised threatening to pummel the unwary. I find them intimidating. A few of these slow growing giants had to be over 30 feet tall and I couldn't help but wonder how they withstand the blast of wind from a T-storm. Beautiful does not come to mind when I look at them, but without a doubt they command respect.

The last part of the trip took us through the Usery Range before dropping down into Apache Junction on AZ-80. Once we pulled out of the Usery Recreation area we were into the farthest-east developments. Traffic was heavy enough that I was only able to get occasional glimpses of where we were, but my sense of it was that everything was new. There are surely older areas here, but the greater mass of what's here seems to be post WW-II. Very noticeable to someone that's been living in Santa Fe for a few years.

Superstition Mtn. at sunset...

We arrived at the KOA in Apache Junction in plenty of time to get hooked up. We were even treated to an amazing effect that sunset creates with Superstition Mountain.

... and during the day.

And just for comparison, this is what that same mountain looks like when it has midday lighting. I find the difference startling!

All in all a wonderful first trip on (semi-) back roads.

Our 2008 Ford truck has a Tow/Haul mode which made life behind the wheel very easy! It took care of all the down-shifting to keep our speed under control. Having a 15,000# hulk urging us along with insistent nudges could be unnerving and in the past would have required the driver to move the gear selector to the next lower gear and apply the brakes. But in this case, after the first touch of the brakes, the transmission understood I wanted to slow down without using just the brakes and it automatically started down-shifting without any other input from me. It really made me appreciate how truck design has moved ahead into the 21st century.

We're off to Santa Fe for a couple days of appointments made before we had any thought of an RV. More updates coming.

Another learning experience, this time in Albuquerque

2009-12-03T20:18:00.008-07:00

Our overnight stay in the Camping World parking lot was a breeze since we'd had a generator installed before we moved the Dog House away from TravelTown. Just push a button and presto! we had 115 VAC to run everything we needed on a cold night.

We also learned our little generator is even louder than those on the power boats we occasionally anchored near when cruising. We remembered their generators rumbling away all night, destroying the serenity of a quiet anchorage, so as soon as we had washed up after dinner we shut it off. Somehow a parking lot falls a little short of a quiet anchorage, especially with I-40 about 100+ yards away. And I doubt anyone noticed- or could hear!- our thoughtful consideration.

Camping World can be a one-stop cathartic for a bank account. We had a combo washer/dryer installed plus a satellite antenna that reminds me a lot of a small-scale something-or-other from a missile launch facility.

Parked at Enchanted Trails RV Park in Albuquerque, NM

After we got the Dog House back and had moved it next door to Enchanted Trails RV Park, we continued to make regular visits to Camping World so we wouldn't suffer withdrawals. Which is a lot like a smoking cessation program that lets you continue to smoke.

We found a few more can't-do-without items from home and from Home Depot. Like tools and a 2" x 8" board we had cut into a couple 6' lengths for leveling the trailer at a campsite. And a 2' step ladder for me cuz Mrs. Bowman's little boy has legs that don't quite reach all the way to the ground (I can't even see into the bed of the truck much less reach the hitch!).

I also spent an hour on the phone ordering DirecTV equipment ($0) and service (not $0). When everything arrived at the house in Santa Fe I hauled it to the Dog House and hooked it up. Everything went well except for this one small thing: I couldn't get the DirecTV receiver set properly so it would work with the automated dish. I finally had to give in and ask for help. One of the Camping World sales people mentioned just the right thing (18" round dish) and in a matter of minutes I had it all working.

Office, restrooms and laundry

Enchanted Trails RV Park is a funky nostalgic trip back to the days when Route 66 was the most-used route to cross the USA. As we pulled into the park the first thing we saw was the polished aluminum skin of a restored small travel trailer connected to a restored 1947 Hudson. And at the owners quarters at the back of the park is a restored 1950 Hudson. Hudson's advertising that year read "Step down into a Hudson", a reference to their "step-down chassis" design.

The park owners have also restored an old Wurlitzer theater organ. The organ arrived as a basket case (literally!) but today it's a beautiful old organ that looks for all the world as it did when it was in daily use decades ago. Well, except for this one small thing: right in the middle is a computer screen plus computer keyboard connected to a Dell computer. After restoring the organ they added the computer to voice the organ to match the Wurlitzer in the Paramount Theater in New York. Pretty impressive stuff and a real show piece!

The park is located beside what appeared to be a large open field. I found an unlocked gate and took Annie over for a walk. My idea was to get her off leash if it looked OK. What I was worried about was cactus, but what I found was miles of unfenced grazing land with cattle not very far away. So much for letting our dogs off-leash! No rancher is going to be happy with someone's dog chasing his cattle.

So our walks were around the park grounds or down the frontage road, but other than that it was a pretty boring stop unless you go into Albuquerque for some sightseeing e.g. to Old Town, Indian Cultural Center, or my favorite stop... PJ's Triumph/Ducati on the east end of Central to check out all the latest and greatest in 2-wheel dream machines.

Next stop Arizona.

Getting started

2009-11-20T14:38:00.003-07:00

So what do you do with a 37' trailer when you don't know squat? No problem: ignorance is bliss!

We left TravelTown on a Friday afternoon just before they locked the front gate. Which means we set up camp for the first time as the sun disappeared in the western sky, laughing all the way down below the horizon. I think we came close to getting it right since nothing blew up, burned out or leaked. Reading a book, and we read several, just isn't do the same as touchy-feely when connecting sewer, water & electrical yourself.

Lesson #1: pretty much level is not the same as level! I thought I was close, but when I stepped into the toilet compartment, the door would slap my ass as a reminder that closies don't count. That was a little annoying, but the coup de grace was the corner of the cupboard door that silently swung open and found my head every time I got out of my chair. Oh... and another cupboard door that swung in front of the TV screen during the best part of a movie.

By our 2nd night at Santa Fe Skies the weather had turned cold in Santa Fe. But the propane furnace made life comfy during the now-freezing nights. Lesson #2: the furnace sucks up 10#-15# of propane every 24 hours when you use it as the only heat source. We were going through a 30# tank every 2-3 days. Since the park hadn't renewed their propane filling station license in time and couldn't refill the tanks, I hauled the empty 30# tanks to Ferrell Gas in Santa Fe to get them refilled.

Corollary A to Lesson #2: why on earth would a sane person want to use propane to heat their trailer when they can use electric heaters that use electricity you're paying for anyway as part of the nightly fee? Duh! So off we went to Home Depot for a couple 1500 Watt heaters.

Celia, who by now had restored herself to her former rank of Admiral, let me know that hauling dirty laundry to the on-site laundromat was no better than when we were cruising and that we needed a change. Normally I, as the Captain, would have responded with authority and installed the needed equipment to keep the Admiral happy. However I have come to realize that staying an enlisted puke has its benefits. When something doesn't work out right I can just shrug and say "but that's what you told me to do, sir! Ummm, ma'am."

That's not quite how it went down. I did Google a neat ventless combo washer/dryer at Camping World, then confirmed they had one in stock in their Albuquerque store, and scheduled the installation.

By this point we had things livable enough that we thought it was time to suck it up and get the Dog House on the road. This time it was a big adventure as we pulled out of Santa Fe and headed south for the parking lot at Camping World. All of 65 miles and a chance to see what the fuel economy of this big truck really is like. We hit all of 10 mpg. Uh-oh. And since Albuquerque is at 5,000' elevation compared to 7,000' at Santa Fe, it was essentially downhill the whole way there. Double-uh-oh. Reality checks really suck.

For the benefit of those who don't already know, Camping World is a specialized retail facility created to remove all available $$$ from the pockets of RV owners. Lots of tantalizing toys that often diminish in utility once removed from the plastic bubble wrap. If you've ever played boats, it's akin to West Marine but with a giant service department.

Even though it was mostly just a chance to get things figured out on the RV, our time at Santa Fe Skies was actually very enjoyable. The setting is gorgeous with expansive views across the city to the Jemez and Sangre de Cristo mountains; off to the south we could see the Ortiz mountains. These views are possible because the park is located on a low mesa south of town.

The park is very 'rural' and is actually located on a small portion of what is named Brown Castle Ranch. The owners (the Brown family) have added a 3/4 mile walking trail around the park which was ideal for getting us and our dogs out for some exercise. And they still have a lot of the old ranch equipment that was left behind by previous owners.

Being away from most of the evening lights of Santa Fe (street lights, buildings, parking lots) gave us the clearest view of the night sky I could have ever imagined. I would like to have been there when it was warmer so I could have stayed out and enjoyed it. A person would have to be hardier than Mrs. Bowman's little boy to enjoy it during the fall as the temps dropped into the high 20s, but a late spring or summer stop here should be well worth the above-average cost.

Next stop Albuquerque.

So how do 2 old toots travel with 2 big dogs?

2009-11-15T15:21:00.006-07:00

Frustration is what did it. We have a very old house in Santa Fe, NM, 2 wonderful Bernese Mountain Dogs... and between the 2 (or is it 3?!) there seemed no hope of traveling. You'd think that a couple who cruised on water in a sailboat for several years would have realized cruising on dirt in an RV is a logical next step. Nope. Took 5 or 6 years to connect the dots.

During the summer of 2009 we had sequential visits with 2 different couples who came to visit us in their RVs (they both had motorhomes). "Hmmm... we could do this. And we can take the dogs!" Or words to that effect.

Once the seed was planted it didn't take long. We started by looking for a motorhome but quickly realized what we could afford to spend on what was clearly an experiment was far short of what a sufficiently large motorhome would cost. A local dealer, TravelTown of Santa Fe, had a 2003 Montana 5th wheel trailer (6 years old at the time) at what seemed a bargain price and we already had a truck. What could be simpler?! 'Hold it dude. You just bought a 15,000# trailer and you want to pull it with what?! Let's talk this over.' We will be forever grateful to Wayne for his early guidance. We knew Wayne was a really cool guy cuz his dog Farley is about the nicest Chocolate Lab you could ever imagine!

So off we went to surf the CarMax site in search of a truck that could handle the load. We bought a 2004 Ford F-350 long bed diesel dually, probably paying a few thousand too much. Then on the trip home from Albuquerque to Santa Fe the truck decided to change lanes without asking first. Scared the crap out of me and we returned the truck a couple days later.

The nice thing about CarMax is that if you get the wrong vehicle you have 5 days to do something about it without additional charges. Just a few button presses by the sales manager to return the first truck and get a different truck on its way. So now we have a 2008 Ford F-350 long bed diesel dually and it seems willing to follow instead of lead.

Once the dealer had the new B&W Companion hitch installed (our truck came with a B&W gooseneck hitch from the factory, so the choice was a no-brainer), we moved our 37' 5th wheel trailer a whole 1.7 miles from TravelTown to Santa Fe Skies RV Park. That was a convenient location to move our "stuff" aboard without having to guess what we needed. With apologies to George Carlin, here's a little about "stuff".

In 2000 we bought our Gemini catamaran Goosebumps. Before we took delivery we had to decide what to bring with us from California to Maryland. We bought equipment cautiously, weighed everything to make sure we were under the manufacturer's 1,500# load limit. It included things like navigation "stuff", anchoring "stuff", dinghy "stuff", cooking "stuff", clothing "stuff". We tossed it into a rented van and off we went to Annapolis. At the other end we packed all the "stuff" aboard only to discover some of our choices were wide of the mark. So, with all our "stuff" aboard, we started buying the things we really needed with no way to get the unneeded "stuff" back to California. We ended up at about double the designer's load limit and as a result our speedy catamaran sailed like a pig.

We did much better this time. The Dog House was parked less than 10 miles from home. We stayed on board and only added what we needed to be able to live, stay warm and keep the dogs happy. No wild guess what would work.

The result was we needed far fewer extras than on the boat. We did add an Onan generator (a winner) and a combo washer/dryer (the jury's still out). We also replaced the old analog TV with a new flat panel digital TV. We're trying a VIZIO we bought at Sam's Club which so far is great. DirecTV again which we used on the boat. And a Winegard CarryOut antenna which simplifies finding a satellite each time we move the Doghouse.

Enough for now. I'll update with entries as we get underway.