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Heading for a week at the beach

I’ve spent the time since getting back from Tucson checking into maintenance items I learned about during the Camp Freightliner class, and other chores, like  working on the sprinkler system and putting in some flowers and new plants in the renovated front yard.

I watched a video and proceeded to drain my generator’s coolant and replaced that and the radiator cap.  I then decided to look into why the power steering was acting a bit odd when parking and turning the wheels to their stops.  Turns out I was very low on power-steering fluid.   This diesel actually uses motor oil for its power steering fluid.  That was very odd sounding to me and I was concerned that might be incorrect.  After a bunch of phone calls and a post on a Tiffin forum, I was assured it did use motor oil.  I also confirmed that by opening the reservoir and dipping in a paper towel.

That tank was very low, almost no oil around the newly discovered filter in there.   I bought a new filter and a gallon of oil, changed the filter out and poured the gallon of oil in.   Hmm.  Looks like I need another gallon of oil to fill it.. (not quarts).   I went back to the store and bought two more gallons.  Geez, in a car you are usually talking pints…

I filled it up, ran the engine for a bit and turned the wheel a bit to get the fluid moving around.

Today we are loading up the coach to head out.   I had just unloaded it completely as we thought the next adventure wasn’t until June.   But a buddy had reserved a site at San Elijo State Beach and now would be out of town.  He knew I had never camped there and offered the reservation.  I drove up there to look at the site as the max length listed was 35′ and that wouldn’t work for our coach.   I scoped out the site.  It was very large and overlooked the water.   But I wasn’t sure I could fit my RV in there and was about to send a text explaining I probably couldn’t use his reservation.  Just then as I was driving away, I spotted a large Prevost bus driving in, so I turned around and followed him.   He pulled it into the site next to the one that could be mine.  That Prevost looked as long as my coach, so I got out and knocked on the door, asking the driver how long he was.  His reply was 40′, and that he has camped there many times and he thinks most of the sites will fit his coach.

Needless to say,  I texted my buddy and bought that reservation from him.    It’s dry camping, no electric, water or sewer, but a beautiful view!

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Heading back home from Tucson

While at the Freightliner Rally we heard there were places in Yuma that would wash and wax your coach for around $120.  That sounded too good to be true as in San Diego they want $10 a foot for that.. ($400)   I got a couple of names someone had used previously and called  Dave’s Auto Detail (aka DAD’s), they were too busy to do it Friday the day we would be passing thru Yuma.  I called Benjamin’s.   He told me to call him when I was almost in Yuma and he would try to fit me in.   I called 15 minutes prior to the turnoff he told us to use.   He said he would have someone meet me behind Al’s RV Supply.   A few minutes later the tech called me and told me he would be a while as he needed to go back to the shop and fill the water tank.   We drove behind the place and the parking lots was fairly sloped so we drove around front to wait.  I went inside the store and found a lens cover for a basement light I had broken months before and was not able to find the right replacement anywhere.    While I was paying for the lens I got to thinking, it was already after 3pm and figured we would probably need to spend the night as it would probably close to 7pm  when they finished.   So I called an RV campground that was a few hundred yards away to ask them if they had a spot and whether they would allow a firm to come in and wash the coach.   Got an affirmative answer and we headed off.   Checked in and parked just as the tech called me back.  We were on, they were a few minutes away.

I was a bit apprehensive when they arrived as I had realized I hadn’t asked how much it would cost.   I was pleasantly surprised when they said it was $99 for a complete wash with a hand waxing for the sides of the coach but not the roof, they only wash that.  But then the sales pitch started,  for another $49 they would treat the roof with a Wax & UV inhibitor, similar to 303… I opted in.   It took them about 2 hours, with 3 of them working to finish it.   They did a great job!

I was glad we decided to stay the night there as I had already driven 4 hours from Tucson is it was almost dark when they finished.   I find it kind of uncomfortable driving the coach at night due to the side windows reflecting everything back at you.   Going straight is no issue, but practically impossible to see anything to the right or left of you at night.   I had noticed that phenomena one very early morning in Muscle Shoals Alabama on a very short drive from a small campground to a shop to have some work done on the coach.  Even turning off all the dashboard lights didn’t help that.  It’s nothing I’ve seen in any other vehicle before.

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Titan II missile silo

I had read there was a Titan II ballistic missile silo about a 30-minute drive southwest of our campground and I just had to go see it early Saturday morning.  Kathy begged off and I drove there to see if I could get in a tour at the last minute.   I got there just as a tour was getting briefed for the procedures to go in and they allowed me to join it.

Turns out anyone 6′ or over must wear a hard hat while underground.   Thankfully I did as told, I hit a few steel beams when I forgot to duck.  I didn’t realize people where that short during the 1960’s, I always thought that we were talking hundreds of years ago. 🙂

This was a really cool tour, and it’s the only Titan II missile silo left.  All the others were destroyed after the new generation of missiles were deployed.   I was surprised the command center was not very far underground, about 55 steps down,  especially when they mentioned the warhead it carried was a 9 Megaton hydrogen bomb.  If ground burst, it would make a crater 500+ feet deep.   It appears they did not expect them to be directly hit by a similar sized weapon.

The underground site was sealed off by sets of massive heavy and thick doors.   Everything in this silo looked to be in perfect condition.  No rust to be seen, yeah it was in Tucson so that makes sense.

The control room was mounted on large springs that you could see around the perimeter.   They explained that the previous generation of missiles took over 45 minutes to launch once they got the launch order from the President due to not being able to keep them fueled due to the volatility of the liquid oxygen fuel.    They would probably all have been destroyed by a first strike as we only had about a 15-minute advance notice of incoming missiles back then.

These new Titan missiles fixed that issue having a different fuel mixture allowing them to be kept fueled up 24/7.   A launch could happen within 58 seconds of receiving a launch order with the Titan II.    I believe they told us all these sites were decommissioned in the late 1980’s.

The actual silo was accessed thru a very long corridor.   There were a couple of large open bay doors to allow a view of the missile from a couple vantage points.   They also mentioned that the tours on the 3rd Saturdays included a visit down to the bottom of the silo.   Unfortunately I was there on the 4th Saturday morning.

I would highly recommend a visit to this museum if you are in the area.  It was fascinating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Lavender Pit, Old Bisby and Tombstone Az

After day two of my class was done, we drove down to the Lavender pit mine near Bisbee Az, about one and a half hours south of our campground.   We drove past Old Bisbee on the way to the open pit mine and thought it would be a nice place to eat our lunch on the way back.

We stopped at the Lavender pit scenic overlook.   It was a really large open pit copper mine.  We had never seen an open pit mine before.  The colors of the dirt and rock all around us was just spectacular.   After gawking for a while we headed further south to Sierra Vista to pick up some bottled water and chips for a picnic lunch, then headed back north toward Old Bisbee.

What a place!   We pulled in and onto a very small roadway that went up the side of the canyon.  It was basically just a foot or so wider than our car with houses and garages clinging to each side of the steep slope.  Reminded us of some of the villages we visited in Europe.   When we got to the top, it was what looked like a dead end and started thinking that couldn’t have been a two way road.   But just then someone pulled out and went off to our left and down an incredibly steep road that I couldn’t see was there and probably wouldn’t have found without that car going down it.   We turned to go down it.  Wow, it was probably a 45-50-degree slope to the bottom of the canyon.

Old Bisbee is an odd little place, kind of 60ish feel, maybe an artist colony wrapped into one.   We found a parking spot right next to the mining museum and started looking around for a shady spot with a table.  It didn’t look like we would find one, so I sat down on a steel bench with Dusty, and Kathy went ahead to see if there were any tables around.   That steel bench seat was HOT, really hot out in the full midday sun.   Kathy yelled and motioned me to come.  She had found a little chess table with two stools in the shade up the hill a bit.

We had found a delightful place for a picnic lunch!   Beautiful cool breeze and pretty view.   And only a few yards away from a washroom.   It was Friday afternoon and there were lots of folks walking around the town on this perfect weather day.   After lunch we went for a stroll up and down the streets, found a cool park kind of hidden up a long flight of stairs.   It had a nice covered area with hilltop views of the town and canyon walls.   After admiring the park for a bit we noticed one house that looked much nicer than most of the others we could see so we headed further up the hill toward it.   Lots of steep narrow roads all around this little canyon town.  I was sad to leave as we wanted to see Tombstone and hopefully still have time to see Kartchner cavern on the way back.

We headed north out of town toward Tombstone using the GPS to find Boot Hill.   I wasn’t sure we would want to stop there when we drove thru it on the way toward the mine, but I am glad we did.   They had one of the roads blocked off to traffic all set up similar to what it would have looked like during Wyatt Earp’s and Doc Holliday’s time, complete with the wooden boardwalks on both sides.   There were outlaws dressed up in period gear in the road,  stage coaches giving rides around the town.   Tourist shops and saloons lined the street, which was considerably longer than I expected.  One of the stage coaches looked considerably older than the others, after walking past it I was thinking it was from the 1880’s and hadn’t been well maintained.  Sort of looked like a deathtrap that might disintegrate while going down the street.

We walked over to the courthouse that was about a block off that road.  We found an ice cream store on one of the side streets.   I met a couple of Arizona Rangers.  They came up to me as I was parked on a bench waiting for Kathy to find a tee shirt.   I hadn’t ever heard of Rangers in Az, only the Texas variety.   I asked them about the gun laws in Az.  He said no permit was needed for open or concealed pistols, and they both said it’s a much safer place because of it.   That just seems odd that policeman would think that, as they have to worry that anyone they stop can legally have a gun.  But they were older gentlemen and thought differently than I would have guessed.

I was pleasantly surprised we had a good time walking around in Tombstone, which I thought would be too touristy for me.   We left and headed toward home base and I wanted to stop at Kartchner Cavern.

When we got there, I asked the attendant at the gate if we could bring the pup into the cave, and he said no, but all the tours were full so we couldn’t go in them either.   He mentioned this cave is the only fully wheelchair accessible one in the US.  He was responding to my questions about the number of stairs on the tour.   I was remembering back to one of the caves we hiked in the Black Hills last summer had about 800 stairs to climb.    I asked about the temp in the cave, to see if it was as cold as the caves from last summer.   He told us it was hot in this cave,  98% humidity and about 75 degrees.   Far cry from the 48 or so degrees of the caves in the Black Hills.

We drove back to the RV after a nice day sightseeing in the Arizona desert.

 

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Heading for Tucson and the FCOC Rally

After we got home last fall, I started researching trips for this year (2018) and thought we might try some of the RV rallies I had been reading about last summer.   A week in Quartzite was the first, then two weeks in Tucson.  After that, a summer couple-month trip to the Pacific Northwest with a one-week rally in Coos Bay, Oregon.   The last of the planned trips is to Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta in early October.

The Tucson trip was for a Freightliner Chassis rally.  I had signed up to take a class on maintenance for my chassis and was looking forward to spending a couple weeks in Tucson.

After spending six months on the road last summer,  a new mattress for the coach was required.  Our mattress was a foam type that was way to soft for me, so after reading Consumer Reports, we picked out an innerspring model that was on their recommended list.  The closest dealer that sold it was in Yuma,  so I purchased the new king mattress over the phone during the Presidents’ day sales in February with the intention of picking it up in Yuma on the way to Tucson in March.

Prior to pulling the trigger, I started asking on some forums if folks with my specific coach model were able to get an innerspring mattress thru the front door.  Most folks said no, but a few said they had done it.   I started thinking the “no” responses had probably never tried it and just went with another foam or air mattress, and a few mentioned they bought two long twins which equals a king-size bed.   So after the few folks said they had gotten one in but that it took two people to get it in there, I pulled the trigger.   After that I got to second-guess my decision for a month till we headed toward Yuma.

We arrived in Yuma last Monday afternoon and parked around back next to the loading dock.   I put out all the slides to give us room to maneuver both mattresses.   I had their warehouse guy help me move the old mattress out of the way, but not out of the coach yet, in case the new one wouldn’t fit in thru the door.    After a bit of struggling with the new mattress, me pulling and the young man pushing, we got it in.  Hooray!   Keeping the plastic on it was very helpful, allowing it to slide a bit on the steps as we manhandled it up and thru the doorway and steps.   We offloaded the old mattress.  Geez was that thing heavy, probably triple the weight of the innerspring mattress.

We pulled in all the slides and headed for Tucson, another 3 1/2 hours of driving.   About 50 miles shy of the campground, we pulled into a Pilot fuel stop and I was able to pump 138 gallons into the tank.  [As we were driving the rest of the way, I was smelling a strong odor of fuel.  Bill at first said it was because some splashed on him, but then later he he had forgotten to put on the fuel cap and it was still in his pocket,  oops!!]

We arrived at the RV park at Pima County Fairgrounds just a bit after dark and luckily a camp host came out and guided us to a site.    It had been a long day and we just deployed the coach, hooked up to water and electricity, and called it a day.   Perfect time for a bourbon & seven, but as we looked for the bourbon,  we realized we hadn’t packed it.    🙁

 

 

 

 

 

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Dry camping in the Desert of Arizona.

We were dry camping in the desert a bit north of Quartzsite, Arizona.  There are 10’s of thousands of RV’s out here.   Amazing views driving into the area, nothing but RV’s as far as you could see when you crested the hill west of town.

Prior to going out there, it was hard to imagine how many folks would be dry camping out there, all of them camping for free on BLM land.  You only need to check in at the camp host and fill out a form.  You can stay on this BLM land for 14 days at no charge.

We were expecting lots of dirt and sand, but that’s not what we found.  It was all small dark red rocks.  It actually looked like someone had tried to pave the whole area with small reddish rocks.  It was not at all smooth, and walking around in the dark could be face plant material due to the random larger rock sticking up a couple inches higher than the ones around it.

The first night all the stars in the night sky were stunning.  We had figured we would see a lot during our trip last summer, but there was nothing like this, probably due to lots of storms in the evenings.   We had a few very clear nights while we were camping out there in the boondocks.

I was fairly apprehensive about how much water we would use and very apprehensive about how much power we would use from the batteries while there and with that, the requirement to run the generator to charge them back up.   The first few days and nights would help us understand how it would all work.

We arrived fairly late on Tuesday, much later than I wanted to arrive as we had never been out there before and I figured finding it in the dark would be impossible.  We got there right around dusk, forgetting how much earlier it gets dark in the winter and they were one hour ahead of home. I had programmed the GPS coordinates into google maps.  Once we turned off onto Plumosa Road and checked in with the BLM camp host, we set out to find that dot in the desert.   Turns out it was about 3 miles farther out.   About every 1/2 mile there was a dirt road off to the left or right with very small signs stuck into the dirt indicating where different groups were camped.   Since the sun had gone down behind a small mountain west of us, it was getting dark.  It was not easy to read the little signs, so I had to go very slowly when I saw another of them as there were many signs at each dirt road.

I finally pulled over to look at the GPS closely and saw it was still quite a bit further out.  After about 10 more minutes, I finally saw the sign I was looking for and pulled in.   I was glad I didn’t miss it as I was told that was the last dirt road for a long ways and there wasn’t anyplace to turn this rig around out there for miles.

We were camped about 1/2 mile north of the main road on a huge swath of moonscape.   It was good that it was large as we were expecting over 100 coaches to show up.   Most folks would probably arrive on Thursday, so getting there Tuesday evening would let us park fairly close to where the band and bonfires would be.

We met up with the Botts who were putting on the gathering.  David and Brenda are very nice folks.  I first found his blog while I was researching how to connect to Campground Wifi without going thru all the rigamarole I had to work thru during my first nights with the coach. Three different campgrounds where I had to connect each device separately and at two parks had to create accounts for each device. What a hassle that was, and I’m an IT guy!  I knew there was a better way.  After getting back home I started looking for it.

David had a great video showing what he thought was a really good system and how to set it up. I watched it, looked up the devices and thought, that is pretty incredible, and all the parts together were about $80. The devices he specified were commercial type devices. The only drawback I thought of was they weren’t on the newer AC Wifi protocol.  Later I was to find out, only 2 of the campgrounds on our 6 months of traveling even supported AC. So I still haven’t seen a need to update the devices to the newer protocol, but I still may.  We’ve been running AC for a few years in the House.

Anyway, to get back to the week.    We had a great potluck one night and the band David brought in from Phoenix was extremely good. Unfortunately, the band was booked for Sunday night and a lot of folks had to leave Sunday morning, possibly to go back to work Monday morning.  But a good time was had by all who stayed!  The weather even cooperated and the wind died down right before they started to play.

We met lots of fellow dry campers and will be trying to meet up with them again in the future.   We are now fairly confident using the coach as a self-contained unit without requiring any hookups for a week of dry camping where ever we may find ourselves.  (aka Boondocking)

We went into town  and found this small monument to a guy that managed the Camel Fleet for the US Army experiment back in the day.    I also went to see the big tent.   Pretty large area with lots of hawkers like the Fair in Del Mar every year.   Although I couldn’t find the Ginsu knife stall.

After being there 6 nights we left Tuesday morning heading back to San Diego.   What a beautiful week to be here.  Desert camping is pretty nice,  and you can’t beat the price!

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On the Road Again!

Check out the camera and GPS to see where we are today.

While I was trying to get my knee better I was doing some planning and installs.  I replaced all 6 batteries in the coach,  4 house batteries and 2 chassis batteries.    I also wired in a Shunt to allow metering of the power inbound and outbound from the house batteries.   I also installed a Bogart Trimetric Meter  above the thermostat on the hallway wall.
Pulling the wires from the battery bay to that interior wall was very difficult and time consuming, but its done now.    After all that was done, I ordered all new LED bulbs to replace the fluorescent tubes on the ceiling and above the sink.   I had replaced all the fluorescent tubes not long after purchasing the coach due to darking ends, but they needed to be replaced again as they were quickly turning dark grey at the ends again.  Researching that, it seems the ballasts need to be replaced.  Fast forward to now, I didn’t want to waste more money on those tubes and bit the upgrade bullet.  Changing them out was quite a bit more difficult than the videos implied.   Turns out my fixtures had the reflective shielding riveted in.  As I wanted to keep the existing coach wiring coming thru the ceiling as long as possible I had to drill them out while the fixture dangled over my head.  (had to drill them from the back side)

They’re all done now.   Thank God!

 

We are traveling…

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The long drive back to San Diego

In New Orleans my knee started giving me trouble again, probably due to all the running around in Red Bay trying to get things to happen.   Kathy really wanted to get home anyway, so we are just driving about 300 miles a day toward SD.

First night was in Beaumont, Texas, then on to San Antonio for Saturday night.  Sunday night was spent in Fort Stockton, Texas.  Geez, Texas is a big state and El Paso is still about 200 more miles.  We spent the the night in Las Cruces, New Mexico on Monday, then on to the Tucson area, actually someplace called Picacho, AZ, about 40 miles north of there Tuesday evening.

We arrived in San Diego yesterday on Wednesday, October  25th!!   Kathy was sad to leave all the trees of the East Coast.   Western Texas all the way to the steep Mountain Springs Grade to the Jacumba Pass is basically treeless.  1,200 miles of desert with few trees. 

I just checked the mileage and we drove 10,375 miles over the last 5 months and 3 days.  Holy Cow..  That’s about $4,000 just for diesel fuel!!!!  Plus we put about 6,500 miles Kathy’s car driving around sightseeing!!

What a great trip.  Once we get the coach fully unloaded and cleaned, I need to start on the modifications for the next trip in January, boondocking near Quartzite for a week on BLM land.  That includes adding a couple hundred watts of solar to the roof and replacing the worn-out house batteries, plus the addition of a new TV up front so the news can be watched without bringing up the TV behind the sofa.

(A special thanks to Gloria and Pat for coming over to help unload since Bill couldn’t walk with his knee.  I couldn’t have done it by myself!!!)