Our RV Adventures

We started off this morning an hour too early. But not really for the reason you might think.

No, we did not forget to ‘Spring Forward’. The problem was that one of our clocks did.

Arizona is one of two states (the other is Hawaii) that don’t observe Daylight Savings Time. But our bedroom clock did observe it. It must have thought it was on Navajo Nation time, since they DO observe DST here in Arizona. I thought I had turned off DST on the clock, but apparently it didn’t take.

So thinking we were getting up about 9:15 we rushed to get ready to meet Nick and Terry at 10 to drive over to the Arizona Market Place to spend the morning.

But, while Jan was in the shower, I came out to the living room to discover that it was really 8:15. So we had plenty of time after all.

Around 10am we left the rig with Nick and Terry, Tom and Barb, and Jan and I, and headed out.

The Arizona Market Place is a flea market type shopping area, that, although it’s really open to the weather, is shaded by large canopies that keep it very comfortable for the shoppers.

One thing that was neat about this place was the several large hardware/RV stores. They all had a lot of neat stuff, and I found several things I’ve been looking for to finish up some projects that I have in mind, and Jan found a new fanny pack and the rest of the Sue Grafton Alphabet mysteries she’s gotten hooked on.

Something for everyone.

About 12:30 Nick, Terry, Jan, and I drove out to the Foothills area to eat lunch at a Mexican place a vendor at the Arizona Market Place had recommend called Mi Fajita.

Since it was right down the road from the Chocolate Crafter’s store, we swung thru their parking lot on the way, but found them closed on Sunday. Bummer!

Mi Fajita turned out to be very good, and everyone enjoyed their meal. And as usual after finishing, we just sat around talking.

We got back to the rig about 2:30 and everyone seemed to think it was a good idea for a nap. I know I certainly did.

Around 4pm or so Nick and I got together to check our tire pressures and add any needed air.

And one of Nick’s tires really, really needed air. It also needed the rest of the tire that had blown out.

As you can by this photo the tire is has two large holes, one at about 10 o’clock and the one even larger, at 4 o’clock. This is the left rear inside dual, and the holes are on the inside toward the middle of the rig so they can’t be easily seen.

Nick has a Pressure Pro Tire Pressure Monitor System, but in one of those ironic coincidences, he had been having trouble with the sensor on the that tire not working.

But we didn’t discovered all this until after Nick had called his Coach-Net Emergency Road Service and they came out and pulled both tires on that side to see what the problem was.

And now we know what it was.

But by the time we knew what had happened, it was too late to get a new tire. So Nick will have to wait until tomorrow morning to get it replaced.

Which means we very possibly won’t be leaving for Tucson tomorrow like we’d planned. We’ll just have to see. But luckily we don’t have any schedule to keep, or any place to be at a certain time.

Finally, about 8pm we all headed out to DQ so Nick could drown his sorrows in a large chocolate milkshake. Personally, I drowned mine in a large Caramel Moolatte.

Different strokes, and all that.

More tomorrow, maybe from Tucson, maybe not.

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Thought for the Day:

"You cannot invade the US. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass." – Admiral Yamamoto, Japanese Imperial Navy

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It was really nice to be able to sleep in this morning. Although Jan got up about 8 I slept in until about 10. But then she fell asleep about 10 last night, and I didn’t come to bed until about 1:30am.

I fixed coffee and we had the pumpkin spice muffin tops we got at Kneader’s Bakery yesterday. It was great not to have to be anywhere anytime soon, to just sit and talk, and enjoy each others company. We didn’t even turn the TV on.

But a little later, we did once again have to engage in, as Jan calls it, “The Electrical Dance”. It’s kind of like the Hokey Pokey, but instead putting hands and feet in and out, you turn appliances on and off.  Like “You put the AC on, you turn the water heater off, you put the coffee pot on, you turn the clothes dryer off.” “You then cross your fingers and hope it doesn’t blow, that’s life here at 20 amps.”

“All together now, You put the . . .” 

The outside temperature was starting to push 80 so we turned off the roof fans and closed the windows, then started the AC so it wouldn’t get too far behind as the day heated up, since it’s supposed to be in the 88-89 range today. Just to be on the safe side, I also turned the water heater off when I turned on the AC. I just have to remember to turn it back on before my shower later tonight.

A little later I dug out my scanner and made a copy of a Fry’s Electronics receipt to email to our daughter Brandi. The Canon camera we got them for Christmas has developed a problem and they need the receipt to get it repaired.

About 12:30 Jan and I headed out to run some errands, but our first stop was a nearby McDonalds’s for lunch. Then it was on to Sam’s Club to pick up our prescriptions and a few other items.

In what turned out to be one of those strange coincidences (cue Twilight Zone theme here) I wanted to find out why my Wal-Mart online pharmacy history showed that I had picked up a prescription from a Sam’s Club pharmacy in Knoxville, TN last month on February 7th.

Now we haven’t been to Knoxville since the fall of 2008 on our way back to Houston from Alaska, so I wanted to know what was going on with my account. (As far as how we ended up in Knoxville, TN on our way back from Alaska, what can I say. We just wander a lot. Nothing good ever came from taking the shortest distance between two points.) When I talked with the pharmacist about this, I told her that we probably had picked up prescriptions there two and a half years ago, but not recently. And with a little checking, the pharmacist found out what happened.

Someone with my same name and my same birthday had turned in and picked up a prescription there. Although he had a Knoxville address, since they found a name and birthday in the computer that matched, they put his prescription history into my account instead of creating a new one for him. Don’t know about the middle initial, since mine is not on my account, I guess anything of his would have been a match.

Weird!

Heading home from Sam’s, we stopped off at Wal-Mart to get a small step ladder so I can put up the RV Quick Shades solar screens that I bought at the Gypsy Journal Rally. I carry a larger extension ladder in the back of the truck, but I wanted something small and light so I could quickly put them up when we park. Since these shades install on the inside of the windows you’d think that it wouldn’t be a problem. But, because of the screen door on the entry, the shade on the outside door can only be installed from the outside with the door open, and I need a ladder to do it.

Getting back to the rig, we found a new photo of Landon with his Flying J Froggy waiting for us in our email.

He’ll be 7 months old next week and is growing taller like crazy. Brandi said they’re going to have to get him a new car seat because he’s about to outgrow his old one.

As an example, here’s Landon at about two months. Big difference!

Around 3 Nick came over for a while to visit, and then about 4 the six of us headed over to downtown Yuma for a final visit to Da Boyz Italian Cuisine for another great meal of pizza, spaghetti, ravioli, salad, and bread. Really, really good. We’re going to miss Da Boyz when we hit the road.

And not only do they have great food, but they were nice enough to give us three gift certificates for Gypsy Journal Rally door prizes.

And as with our last visit there, we had a lot of nice leftovers to have another time.

We got home a little before 7pm, and then around 8pm the outside temp had dropped to about 72, so I turned off the AC, opened the windows, and turned on the vent fans. Then I also turned the water heater back on.

“You put the AC . . .”

That’s about it for today. Tomorrow morning we’re going down the street to the Arizona Market Place, an outdoor flea market / swap meet facility. It’s supposed to be pretty nice and we want to check it out.

More tomorrow . . .

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Thought for the Day:

When there are more people riding in the cart than there are pulling it, the cart stops moving.

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