Our RV Adventures

As is pretty normal, Jan had one of her ‘rebound’ 2nd day migraines, not as bad as the first one yesterday, but still not fun.

A little after 11am I called American Coach with some questions on several projects I’ve got in work on our coach, and as usual, they came thru with great info.

Then Nick Russell called a few minutes later to talk about finishing up our battery checks from yesterday. Since we picked up some distilled water last night, we’re good to go today.

The latest news on my dented bay door is not good. The fairgrounds and the landscapers are pretty much denying that they did it.

But it was not there last Wednesday when we moved from site 407 to site 404 to get a 50 amp hookup. We haven’t moved since, and no one else has been back there, except them.

And since I just changed from Progressive Insurance to GMAC I really hate to file a claim less than two weeks after I got my new policy.

Still deciding what to do.

After lunch Nick and I got back to work on checking our battery’s water level. Nick has been dissatisfied with the capacity of the 3 12volt Interstate Batteries he installed after he got the new coach. So we checked water level, connections, etc.

Then next we look at a starting problem with his Onan generator, but of course today when we were looking at it, it started fine. So we’ll have to keep an eye on it to see if the problem returns.

About 4:15 pm Jan and I headed in Tucson to meet Nick and Terry, and Nick’s cousin Beverly at Poco & Mom’s, a very small, very delicous Mexican restaurant that we were introduced to last year by our friends Al & Adrienne.

Poco & Mom’s does wonderful things with Green Hatch chilies, and we always eat here when we’re in Tucson.

Coming home, we detoured over to Camping World to pick up new black tank waste valves for both Nick and I.

We both have valves that leak slightly and want to replace them. I suspect mine may just have something stuck in the gate, but since I have to remove it anyway, I figure I might as well just replace it instead of cleaning it.

Mine looks to be pretty easy to remove and replace, but Nick’s may be more problematic.

We’ll see.

I got an email this afternoon that the paperwork for my Thousand Trails membership is in the mail and hopefully will be here Monday. Don’t yet know how long it will take to get everything wrapped up.

That’s about it for today. Hopefully Jan will be feeling better tomorrow, since Al & Adrienne are coming over tomorrow morning to check out Nick & Terry’s computer desk.

More tomorrow . . .

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Thought for the Day:

In war everything is very simple, but the simplest things are very difficult.

sdfg

Continuing from yesterday . . .

After driving around the narrow and twisty streets of Bisbee and then heading out of town on SR 80, it was hard to miss this really, really big hole in the ground.

This hole is the Lavender Pit, and at 300 acres and 900 feet deep, was one of the largest open pit copper mines in the country. The ‘steps’ you see are 50 feet high by 50 feet wide.

It opened in 1950, and until it closed in 1974, produced over 86 million tons of ore, containing copper, gold, silver, and turquoise.

The turquoise, known as Bisbee Blue, is considered some of the finest and most beautiful in the world.

Then, a couple of miles further down the road, we came to The Shady Dell.  A motel / RV park, The Shady Dell is an adventure in ‘midcentury modernism’.

Besides a few RV sites, the motel units are actually completely refurbished vintage camping trailers. Furnished with Black & White TV’s, period radio programs, books, and magazines, staying here is a trip back to the 1950’s.

You can even stay in a 1950’s cabin cruiser.

And for a quick snack, Dot’s Diner is right at hand. Built in 1957 this diner sat at the corner of Ventura and Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Los Angeles. Then in 1996, it was transported to The Shady Dell on the back of a flatbed truck,

Leaving the 1950’s, we turned south on SR 92 to check out the small border town of Naco, AZ.

Naco is famous in American culture as a boyhood home of Nick Russell. Nick’s father was with the US Border Patrol, and was stationed there several times during the late 50’s and early 60’s. Driving around the small town, Nick was even able to find the remains of one of the houses he lived in.

Naco is also home to one of the oldest golf courses in Arizona, the Turquoise Valley Golf, Restaurant & RV Park. A Passport America park, Turquoise Valley boasts a clubhouse built in the 1930’s and is very popular with snowbirds.

Leaving Naco, we headed toward home by a different route passing thru Sierra Vista, home of the nearby Fort Huachuca Army Post.

Fort Huachuca was established in 1877 and has been deactivated and reactivated several times during its life. It was even a US Air Force base for ONE month in 1951.

After making a mandatory DQ stop, and checking out the RV parking at the local Elk’s Lodge, we headed north on SR 90 to get back on I-10 for the trip home.

On the way, Jan talked to Al & Adrienne to set up dinner tomorrow night at Silver Saddle Steakhouse in Tucson. And then a few minutes later Jan got a call from her friend Linda in Billings, MT. Linda and Jan used to work together at a hospital in Houston, until Linda packed up and moved to Billings. We’ve managed to see her there several times over the last several years, and hope to do it again this summer.

We got home about 6:15 after a long but fun day.

And now for the rest of the story . . .

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Today was another early start, but completely unplanned. About 7:15 am fairground workers started trimming the tall oleanders right behind the coach . . . WITH A CHAINSAW!!!

And to top it off, they apparently put a big dent in one of my bay doors, one of the ones I just had painted last fall.

Double Bummer!

Getting up this morning, it was really nippy, having gotten down to 38 degrees last night. It’s supposed to be a little warmer tonight, but not by much.

Unfortunately, Jan woke up with a migraine, and THE CHAINSAW wasn’t helping things, but she took one of her magic Imitrex pills and by later in the afternoon she was feeling much better.

A little later I made coffee and had half of one of Miss Terry’s cinnamon buns, but Jan wasn’t feeling hungry so I had it all to myself.

Then Nick and I were going to check our battery water levels, but after discovering neither of us had any distilled water, we decided to put it off until tomorrow.

Around 4:30 we all drove into Tucson to meet Al & Adrienne for dinner at Silver Saddle Steakhouse. You’re always worried when you introduce two sets of good friends.

What if they don’t like each other?

But they all seemed to hit if off, and after a great steak dinner, we went back to Al & Adrienne’s to talk some more. They’re very interested to see the work areas that Focal Wood Products built for Nick and Terry’s rig, and are coming over Friday morning to check them out.

Then coming home around 8:30 we detoured by a Fry’s to pick up some things, including distilled water for our batteries tomorrow.

More then . . .

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Thought for the Day:

When a fail-safe system fails, it fails by failing to fail safely.

dsfgsd