February 18 through February 24, 2005

Friday February 18:

Temperature under RV is 59 at 8 AM.  It rained steadily overnight.   4 AM weather radio alert for flash flood watch in our area.   Awoke parked on the edge of "lake Walmart"… fortunately it's only 6 inches deep.   :-)   I wonder if this is the "surprise" in Surprise AZ?    The engine alternator has not been charging the house battery; something is wrong with the solenoid switching circuit that connects them together when we drive.  I buy a 2 foot battery cable in Walmart for $2 to connect them together manually when we drive.  This will solve the problem until we get time and dry weather to diagnose and fix the problem fully.  We drive through Phoenix, again seeing the normally dry river carrying WATER!  

This is some year for the desert.....   Feeding ostriches does not appeal to us on a day like this.

Actually....paying for feed for someone else's ostriches does not appeal much on any day.  :-))  The drive to Snyder mountain BLM area is sporadically rainy but uneventful, even though we travel through the heart of Tucson on the interstates near rush hour.  We need to pick our way into the BLM area carefully to avoid entrances with large puddles, and find lots of RVs here this time.  We find a fairly level place and park at the side of the 'road' near the bushes.  Before we get the curtain pulled, a roughly attired bearded man approaches and tells us we have our lights on....THANK YOU, sir!   :-)  And I was concerned about opening the door for him, and talked through the window..... we really have never had problems anywhere in four years, other than panhandling, but there is always that concern in the back of our minds ready to pop up.  I guess it is necessary, as we really do not KNOW the people around us, but we miss meeting some nice folks too, I'm sure.   There is good cell service here, and I work on the website.  I really do want to get it up this weekend, or we will fall unreconcilably behind.  As I work a really heavy rain starts, with hail.  I turn on the headlights to see how the water is draining.  I see heavy flow on the surface around the RV, but it does not build up over two inches deep, as there are lower places for it to go.  I hear engines roaring, as if some folks are trying to move from low places.  There are no lights showing that I can see....and really do not want to go out in this stuff.  I'm not sure how I could help either....  The rain slows considerably, then the weather radio sounds an alarm and advises about a flash flood WARNING for Tucson.  It is a bit late for us....but then we ARE west of Tucson, and did see it first.  :-)

Saturday February 19:

HEAVY fog in the morning.  Today we will go downtown to give Claire some opportunity to get out while I work the webpage.  The weather brightens in the afternoon, but we are still expecting some more rain later.  

Sunday February 20:

We did laundry today, in the same laundromat on Valencia Ave that we used here last time.  It seemed that lots of machines were not working this time, and dryers were scarce.  Claire prevailed upon the owner, Rick, to let her use one of those out of order ones by asking about other laundromats that HAD working machines; after he told her about one at Valencia & 12th at Whataburger, one at Drexel & Mission, and one at Silverbell & Grant, he let her use an "out of order" one.   They really worked, only had not been approved by the city inspectors yet.  GEEZE!  Rick came out for a tour of the RV as Claire finished, and seemed quite surprised at the amenities we had aboard.  I'd predict he is an RVer at some time in the future...  :-)   We went looking for a mall on the map, but found it was nearly out of business.  The few stores still open were having a hard time.  One shop owner told Claire there was not enough summer business to carry her over...so she would close too after the winter season.  The drive through the center of Tucson was said to involve an artsy shopping area, but instead seemed run down and filled with homeless folks...perhaps we were one street too far over?  This overhead walkway was made to look like a rattlesnake.

The enlarged head is to the right, and there is a big rattlesnake tail sticking up out of the picture to the left (yeah, it's like my camera to sometimes take too long storing the picture to take the following better one).  We returned to Snyder Mountain, and as we parked Dennis and Arlyce walked by and we said hi.  They came in to our laundry filled RV for some wine & nuts, and we chatted a long time.  They had been sailors too, more recently than we, and had sold their boat only about  5 years ago and bought the motorhome.  They are quite happy with their little 1987 4 wheel drive standard shift Suzuki they bought used for $1800 with 71,000 miles on it, and tow behind their RV.  Something like that might be good for us too....LIGHT, and 4 wheel drive.  It does need the engine started every 200 towing miles however, to get lubricants circulating to critical parts, and of course you cannot back very far at all without unhooking the toad.  They had a home in Tucson Estates across the road, but it was rented, so they were in the motorhome here.  They liked Tucson Estates too, as they owned the land, paid property taxes of only $300 a year, and had only paid $30,000 for their prefab.  The place had an RV storage lot and dump station for residents, and they could leave their RV in front of their home for up to 4 days to load whenever they were preparing for a trip.  :-)  They had all their medical and dental work done in Algodones Mexico, as they had no insurance.  They were VERY happy with the quality of care, and gave  us the card of their long time family dentist there.  When we opened the second bottle of wine, Arlyce insisted she must cook dinner.  Claire volunteered a salad to accompany the spaghetti and meatballs.  30 minutes later we were in their VERY neat 34 ft Allegro Bay parked 100 ft away.  It was dark, and flashlights were necessary for the short walk.    The Allegro was higher than our Seabreeze, thus had a lower engine hump between the driving seats.  They had added a Banks system ( enlarged exhaust system and other power enhancing modifications) to the Ford 460 engine, and were happy with it.  I was quite impressed with their over 100,000 miles on the motorhome, but Arlyce was very emphatic they never took it over 60 mph.  Dinner was delicious, and FAST, with the sauce and meatballs having being prepared ahead and frozen in single serving packets with 4 meatballs each.  We were introduced to Disaronno Italian Cordial.  It was delicious with coffee!  Arlyce also talked of her wild rice patties.  She cooked up 1/3 cup wild rice, used one egg, 1 teaspoon grated ginger, 1 chopped jalapeno pepper, 2/3 cup water, 2 tablespoons chopped onion, 1 tablespoon flour, and formed them into 2 inch patties.  Sounds like a thing worth trying!  It was after 10 when we headed home; I still had the webpage to upload, and free minutes expire at midnight!  :-)  We had 20 minutes to spare when I declared victory and collapsed in bed.  

Monday February 21:

This morning was not too fast starting.  By the time I looked out, Dennis and Arlyce were already gone.  They were going to dump in preparation for an upcoming trip with the Tucson Estates RV club to Tombstone and Bisbee AZ.  I planned to diagnose the charging problem, then buy parts to repair it.  I dug into it, then decided not to proceed further without the new part, as the removal of the old part would leave the vehicle unsafe to drive.  The solenoid supported most of the heavy unfused battery conductors running to the power distribution panel.  Shorting these would NOT be good!  I called Grainger about a replacement part, having stored their part number from the internet a while back.  They said they were wholesale only, but would give me a one time courtesy buy opportunity.  We found them easily on the east side of town, and I bought two of the solenoids.  I was not happy that they were different in form factor, but thought I might get them in somehow.  We decided to do the work in Camping World's lot, in case we needed something else to finish; what a FORTUNATE decision!  As soon as I had the old part out, I could see there was NO WAY I could work my new one in.  I decided to pay whatever Camping World wanted for the direct substitution part.   They said they did not work on RVs in this store, thus stocked no parts, but referred me to Beaudry RV across the road.  They had a drop in replacement part for $18.  I had paid $22 for the ones I bought from Grainger....  :-(  The parts man said these solenoids fail if the emergency start button is pushed when the key is turned to start, as the solenoid cannot switch starter current.  I did not think I had done that....but who knows?  In the heat of battle anything might happen, and we had starting battery problems recently.  I replaced the solenoid, and did a thorough check;  this solenoid was being held in continuously!!  It charged both batteries, but both would DISCHARGE both from the house load too.  This is unacceptable!!  Quick diagnosis confirmed the coil was being energized all the time, and the circuit was complex including solid state IC's and another relay.  I had no schematic of it either....  :-(((  We could not continue traveling with the house batteries connected permanently to the starting battery.  I could disconnect the solenoid permanently, and use the battery cable to connect them....OR, I could use a switch inside the RV to switch the solenoid on when we drove and turn it off when we stopped.  This seems MUCH more convenient, and not too hard to do, so we decide to proceed as we are to return the solenoids that do not fit, then continue east on I-10 to the Gas City truck stop with a dump station and overnight parking.  This will avoid another round trip west to Snyder Mountain, as our next destination is east of Tucson.  It is little over an hour's drive to Gas City, and we find good parking on a spacious, well lighted, relatively clean black topped lot.  The dump is operational, but they do not recommend drinking the water....HUH?  I taste it, seems OK.... still, there might be something in it.  The clerk could not say why they do not recommend drinking it...  I return to run the wire to control the solenoid into the coach; it is not quite as simple as I thought to get the new wire connected to the solenoid.  I decide the batteries must be disconnected again, and some unpleasant thoughts come to mind as I finally give up trying to attach the wire by feel, and remove the separator panel in the bay for the third time today to get room to complete the task with adequate visual input.  It is getting cold outside when I finally police up all the tools and ty-rap the wire into position under the coach.  Claire has our late dinner about ready as we close up against the evening wind....it is DELICIOUS, welcome and warming.  There will be time in the morning to finish running the wire inside!  After dishes are done and the generator run for coffee and evening TV, I'm off to bed.

Tuesday February 22:

It rained sporadic light showers overnight, and was 52.2 under RV at 4AM.   I'm up early to catch up on the log from the weekend, then back to bed before dawn, as it's kinda cool.  We are above 4000 ft for the first time in a while.  We run the generator and furnace to get the interior toasty for showers after somebody nearby starts a NOISY generator that wakes us to meet the day.... I think it is one of the new small truck diesel generators intended to supply heat and power for night time stops in cold weather, rather than running the more fuel demanding truck engine, but they COULD put a bit more effort into quieting them.....I guess truckers get their comfort from the noise?   :-)  After snaking the control wire for the solenoid to the dashboard, I call the BLM in Safford to check on the road into hot wells dunes; Melissa promises she will know in 30 minutes when we call back.  Sure enough,  she has the report that it is OK if we go slow.  The drive east on I-10 is scenic.

 It really is hard to believe we are forecast 'rain' for the day; of course, in the desert those puffy cumulous clouds are not too common.  :-)   We arrive at the Bowie post office minutes before they reopen after lunch at 1:30, just as a rain shower is ending..  Our mail is not there.  We go on to the BLM Hot Wells Dunes recreation area.  The road is somewhat slippery with mud on the surface from the shower, but there is no standing water in the driving lane.  There are more folks here than last time, but we find a nice level place to park away from any table shelter, which we really do not need.  The hot tub seems a bit less warm than last time...but who can tell for sure?   By the end of the day I am dehydrated and in need of drinking water.  WATER is a MUST while soaking!!  I learned this last time, but must re-learn it.  DUHHHHH.  I am ready to turn in early after my evening soak, but the colors the fallen sun paints on these clouds catch my eye.

Claire wants the broken vacuum cleaner handle fixed too, and it is a multi stage gluing process.  Tonight I'll do the easy first stage before bed, so first mix some epoxy.   The stuff smells up the RV enough that we must run the exhaust fan for 30 minutes with the windows open ....  :-(  It seems I should have remembered this from fixing Claire's glasses last fall, but that memory did not stay.  As soon as the air is tolerable inside, I  turn in.

Wednesday February 23:

I awoke at sunup, and used my fleece "snow suit" to walk to the tubs.  It was COOL getting stripped to my bathing suit, but the tub sure fixed any cool FAST! :-)  Today I soaked whenever I felt cool enough to stand more of the heat.  The afternoon I spent on the second  stage of gluing the vacuum cleaner handle .  Metal reinforcement is called for, and the plumbers strap and wire is on hand.  All mixing and gluing is done OUTSIDE!  After the work is done, it's time for yet another soak.  :-)  A few RVs come in with trailers of ATVs.  This is full moon evening, and the lunar disk rises over the dunes right on cue at sunset.

When I saw the moon, I had a terrible thought....what if those ATVs run all night in the moonlight?  They are reputed to come here mainly on weekends, and have a noisy wild time....but two trailer loads came in today, the day of full moon.   We went to bed as usual, and heard nothing but a few coyotes all night.  These ATVers are good folks too!  :-)

Thursday February 24:

I soaked off and on most of the day, and worked on finishing the gluing of the vacuum cleaner handle.  I hiked up onto the dunes, and looked down over our campsite.

We're in the center, the hot tubs are on the left, inside the fence, to the left of the latrine building (with the two vent stacks).  A family with a full stable of ATVs is parked on the right.  This old barbed wire fence once threatened bodily harm to riders here, but now sits safely coiled next to a trail.

The dunes and mountains are beautiful, and if the hot tubs were not such an attraction, we'd spend lots of time hiking out here...

Of course, we'd have our ears listening for ATV engines approaching at high speed too...  :-)  Our new Canadian friends Barry & Maureen, and Elroy and Ann from the Vancouver BC area came over to look at the RV and share some wine.  It rained some.  After they left it rained MUCH harder, with hail.  After it stopped, I soaked in the late evening with folks who are traditional hot spring enthusiasts, as my usual hotter tub was filled with ATVer kids and their parents.  Many of these traditional hot spring folks are not too keen on many clothes while soaking.  :-)  They told of sitting in the tub during the storm, with hail landing in the hot water and floating on it.....  NO, no pictures of that, sorry!    But I did see the hail lying on the ground.....

I'll show ya that!  :-)  We do plan to leave Hot Wells Dunes tomorrow, if the mail is in.  We've really enjoyed it here, but see no reason to tempt fate by staying through the weekend, as long as all else is in order to proceed.....

PLANS: We are heading to Big Bend National Park, then will drift northeast as our desire and the weather allows, with the goal of being in the Kansas City MO area on April 1 for a Taekwondo seminar that Claire wants to attend.  Beyond that, plans are not firm....but the Mountain View AR folk music festival we enjoyed so much last year is April 15, and not TOO far away...who knows?  :-)

Until next time, ENJOY! We are!