Our RV Adventures

After a frosty night that went down to 35 degrees here in the Verde Valley, it was nice to get up to hot coffee and warm blueberry muffins. And it was really nice to be able to just lounge around the coach with nothing really pressing on the agenda.

About 12:30 Nick came by to see if we needed anything since he was heading into town to run some errands. Told him we were heading out soon ourselves.

About 1 pm Jan and I headed into Cottonwood to pick up some groceries, and for Jan to get a pedicure, both at Wal-Mart. She signed in at the nail place, said she be back in about 30 minutes, and we went off to do our shopping.

Then, while I was checking out and heading to the truck with our stuff, Jan went in to get her toesies done. And while she was doing that, I headed to the Post Office to drop off some mail, and run some other errands. Getting back to Wal-Mart about 30 minutes later, I parked and waited for Jan to come out…and she did about 5 minutes later, which was way too early. Getting a pedicure normally takes about an hour.

It turns out that she hadn’t got her toes done at all.  They had sat her down to soak her feet, and then apparently all the girls went to lunch, leaving Jan not only soaking her feet, but steaming mad. So she walked out.

It was now about 3 o’clock, so I dropped Jan off at another nail place down the street, and headed back to the park to drop off the groceries and get our frozen stuff in the freezer.

Heading back to get Jan about 30 minutes later, I had Nick and Terry with me, since it was getting close to dinner time. So picking up Jan, we drove over to Hog Wild BBQ for our 3rd try at eating there.

On our first try, this past Saturday, there was a shooting on the same block and the police weren’t letting anyone near. Yesterday was the 2nd attempt and it turns out Hog Wild is closed on Sundays. So today we tried again.

And it was well worth the wait. Besides BBQ, they also carry Chicago-style hot dogs and sandwiches, but we all had the BBQ. And it was really good, with a great sauce and good sides. The baked beans were especially good. A great place and we’ll go back.

After dinner we drove up into the hills above Cottonwood just to do some sightseeing. We passed thru Clarkdale and then headed what seemed to be almost straight up, gaining over 2000 ft. in altitude in just a few miles. We ended up in Jerome, a 1870’s mining town reincarnated as one of those artsy tourist towns. But the views of the surrounding valley were spectacular and the way some of the homes, old and new, are stuck to the side of the mountains are just amazing.

Getting back to the rig about 6:30, we found some new Landon pics waiting in our email. This was his first trip to the park, but he doesn’t seem too impressed with it so far. But he is a cutie.

Tomorrow we’re going to take a drive over to the Sedona area to see the sites.

More tomorrow.

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Thought for the Day:

How do you know that the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t a muzzle flash ?

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The Blood from my bleeding arm

The Sweat was Terry’s and mine.

The Tears were tears of joy

This was a semi-early morning, getting up about 8:15 am to be ready to head out to Home Depot about 8:45 with Nick and Terry.

We were now on Plan C.

Plan A had been to hook up Terry’s new faucet using the old connectors. That didn’t work out, and so Plan A devolved to Plan B.

Plan B proceeded last evening with a stop at Home Depot on the way to supper to get some new Sharkbite PEX connectors to replace to the old ones. If you work with PEX the Sharkbite fittings are the way to go. No crimping needed.

Coming back to the rig Terry and I spend the rest of the evening trying to get the new connectors threaded on to the faucet fittings. But the only thing we really accomplished was to twist the copper tubing on the new faucet into a knot, ruining it.

So, back to Plan C. Terry picked out a new faucet that she liked better than the one from Camping World, and it was cheaper too. We also picked some PEX tubing and some more, different connectors.

Before heading home, I ran next door to the Fry’s to pick some blueberry muffins for Jan, who had stayed back in the rig. I also grabbed a bouquet of fresh flowers for my sweetie. I consider them a kind of a ‘Get Out of Jail’ card, for when I screw up at a later date.

And you know I will.

Back to the rig, Terry started removing the damaged faucet while I fixed coffee to have with our muffins, and we settled down to get ready for our scheduled video Skype session with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon.

Lowell skyped us about 10 am and we had a great time seeing and talking to Landon. It was obvious he could see and hear us, based on his looking at the screen and reacting to our voices.

Our called lasted about 15 minutes, and it was amazing to see how much Landon had grown and changed since our last Skype.

Our call ended much too soon, and then it was back to the Faucet Wars.

But victory was not to be. After trying fruitlessly to connect the pipes to the faucet, it suddenly dawned on me what our problem really was. And quick check with the old faucet confirmed it.

The guy at Home Depot had sold us the WRONG size fittings, He gave us 1/2” FNPT fittings, with the ‘F’ meaning Fine Thread. We really needed MNPT or ‘M’ or Medium Thread. That explained why the connector would start turning and then immediately be almost impossible to turn.

So we were now dragged, kicking and screaming into Plan D. But at least Plan D included lunch.

And a great lunch it turned out to be. We first decided to try Hog Wild BBQ again, hoping not to be blocked by another shooting. But as it turned out, it only needed to be Sunday to block us. Hog Wild is closed on Sunday.

So our next choice was to try the gas station-looking burger joint we’d seen earlier. It turned out to be Bing’s Burger Station, complete with a

shiny red 1950 Plymouth at the pumps. And inside it had the look of a 1950’s diner.

The staff was very friendly, and even better, the food was delicious! Jan and Terry had burgers and fries, and Nick and I each had the Steak Sandwich, made with a REAL steak, a 7 oz. Sirloin Strip, on a hoagie roll, with all the trimmings.

Just the BEST steak sandwich, ever. We’ll definitely be back.

And speaking of being back, after lunch it was back to Home Depot, again. And this time we got the right connectors, along with two flexible faucet hoses to make it easier to hook up.

And easier it was. Getting back to the rig, it only took us about 20 minutes to wrap the job up.

Cue the tears of joy.

Back at our rig, I decided to celebrate our victory in the Faucet Wars with a well-deserved nap.

Well, maybe not well-deserved, but certainly well-wanted.

And then in further celebration, about 6 pm we all headed over to the DQ in Camp Verde for a round of cold treats and Nick’s dirty jokes.

A great combination.

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Thought for the Day:

You don’t have to be brilliant. Usually just not being stupid is good enough.

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